The Bakassi Peoples Assembly (BPA), led by Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, yesterday, urged the Federal Government to urgently resolve the resettlement of the Bakassi people to Day Spring 1&2 and Kwa Islands.
Addressing newsmen in Lagos, Ita-Giwa said “there is need to resettle the Bakassi people to the place of their choice (Day Spring 1&2 and Kwa Islands) as promised them by the federal government in 2006.
Ita-Giwa who said that the Bakassi people at the moment were fed up living in foreign land and noted that the then administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo promised that the Bakassi people would be relocated and resettled in a place of their choice as painlessly as possible with all its institutions intact.
According to her, as I am talking to you, nothing has been heard again on the settlement issue. As the good people of Bakassi, we do not wish to become cannon folders in Akpabuyo.
“While we cannot claim that this promise has been fulfilled, we believe that recent events have made our relocation and resettlement on these islands an imperative for the peace and stability of Nigeria” she said.
In her word: “Day spring 1&2 and Kwa Islands have always been a part of the old Bakassi Local Government and are the only un-ceded portions of the old local government.
“As peace loving people we have chosen to cut our losses and move as a sacrifice for the peace and stability of our fatherland, Nigeria.
“We do not subscribe to futile efforts of trying to appeal the 2002 ICJ judgment, 10 years after, painful as it is.” she said.
She said that resources should be deployed for the urgent development of infrastructure in the Day Spring 1&2 and Kwa Islands.
“Nigeria is fraught with too many internal conflicts over the issues of settlers and land owners hence the need for government to be mindful to create such circumstances for the Bakassi people,” she said.
It should be recalled that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the oil-rich Bakassi did not belong to Nigeria but Cameroun.
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