Following the failure of the federal government to seek a review of the 2002 judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Bakassi Peninsula, there are indications that some indigenes of Bakassi have commenced preparations to seek self-determination towards forming a separate state.

The Bakassi Support Group disclosed this Friday at a media briefing in Abuja. The group made up of some eminent citizens from Cross River State accused the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr Mohammed Adoke, of misleading the government with regard to new facts and evidence upon which the country could have filed for a review of the judgment.

But the Bakassi People's General Assembly chaired by former Senator Florence Ita-Giwa has dissociated itself from the call for Bakassi indigenes to join other ethnic nationalities of Southern Cameroun to form a sovereign state.

The Bakassi Support Group said call for self-determination is a right guaranteed under the United Nations Charter. Leader of the group, former Senator Bassey Ewah Henshaw, said the apparent abandonment of the Bakassi people at this time could trigger civil unrest and armed conflict in the area and compound the security challenges in Nigeria.

"Let me go further to talk about the security implications of all of these because the South West Camerounians who now feel that they are not part of Cameroun and that they were forced to belong to that country. They have been suffering the same kind of abuse are now talking in terms of taking up arms to free themselves. They have been in court for many years on the issue of their being lumped together with the others in one country."

Henshaw said that there was need to investigate what really happened after President Goodluck Jonathan gave a directive to a committee to file for a revision of the case. According to him, those charged with the responsibility did not carry out the order but announced at the last minute that there were no new facts upon which Nigeria could approach the ICJ for the review.

He said that contrary to the position of these people, the Bakassi Support Group had contacted a team of experts who prepared a brief on the case and was ready to make it available to the government.

"Nigerians at all levels kept insisting that our government should file for the review. The Nigeria Bar Association and other professional bodies were in support of the review. The two chambers of the National Assembly also resolved that the Federal Government should seek a review of the judgment.

"But each time this position is canvassed what you get from government officials is that it will amount to reneging on a commitment; it will make us look bad in the eyes of the international community."

A member of the Bakassi Support Group and former Nigerian Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Hon Nkoyo Toyo also spoke of the looming danger in the decision of the federal government not to file for a review of the judgment.

Toyo disclosed that already there has been a cold war in Southern Cameroun where the English speaking Camerounians do not believe they belong to one country with the French speaking parts of Cameroun.

"Apart from the Bakassi case, there is a big problem brewing in Cameroun itself. They say what happened was an annexation of their territory against their wish and they have been fighting to reverse it for many years," she said.

A statement issued on Friday by the association said what the people consider expedient is resettlement and not a clamour for a sovereign state.

"The umbrella organisation for Bakassi aborigines, Bakassi People's General Assembly under the leadership of Senator (Princess) Florence Ita-Giwa wishes to dissociate itself from the call for Bakassi Efik indigenes to join other ethnic nationalities of Southern Cameroun to form a new sovereign state.

"The General Assembly has consistently called for the relocation and resettlement of the displaced indigenes of Bakassi in the Kwa Island and Day Spring 1 and 2 Islands, which are the only unceeded portions of Bakassi land."
allAfrica