Bakassi: Why I don’t want to see Imoke – Monarch

[MrVan]

By  Johnbosco Agbakwuru

CALABAR—PARAMOUNT Ruler of the displaced Bakassi Peninsula, HRM Etinyin Okon-Edet, has said that he deliberately refused to see Cross River State governor, Mr. Liyel Imoke, to avoid unnecessary pressure from government in their bid to reclaim Bakassi, ceded to Cameroon.

Etinyin Okon-Edet had recently announced that the Bakassi people will reclaim their ancestral home irrespective of the consequence, adding that it was the only option open to them as they alleged that the Federal Government and the international community that made promises during the hand over of the oil rich peninsula had failed to fulfill their promises.

The Bakassi paramount ruler, who is also chairman of Cross River State Council of Chiefs, said that the most painful aspect of the alleged deceit by the Federal Government was the removal of the 76 oil wells in the area and the delisting of Cross River State from the league of oil producing states, describing the action as double punishment to the people.

Though the state government had recently called on the people to follow the path of peace in the resolution of the problem, the monarch said that Federal Government had ignored all calls for plebiscite for people to decide where they belong and for that reason, he had decided not to see Imoke.

He said: "I don't want to see my governor, I am angry. We don't have any problem with him, but we don't want him to mount pressure on us to abandon our position. The people have decided to eject the illegal tenants out of our land.

"Bakassi people have not been fairly treated by this country and what we are looking at now is how to go back to our ancestral land by any means possible. We don't want their relocation any longer, we are going to take it by whatever means because we have been led astray for almost 10 years now."

Vanguard Nigeria