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The Bakassi peninsular could be embroiled in a fresh conflict between Cameroon and the Federal Republic of Nigeria as the west African nation has accused Cameroon of flouting the agreements of the Green Tree Accord.
In a video which has made rounds on social media platforms, Former Special Assistant to former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, Femi Kayode accused Cameroon of amongst other things failing to respect the monthly compensations of 500 million naira to Nigeria’s Cross River State as stipulated by the Green Tree Agreement.
The people of the Bakassi peninsular were equally expected to be granted autonomy as the agreement equally said they had the right to self-determination.
“I am telling you as at today, the National Assembly did not ratify this move… and the aspect of self-determination. A plebiscite in a referendum ought to have been conducted. It was never done. On that basis, I say it loud and clear that if I were the Nigerian president today, my priority will be to reunite Nigeria by sending our forces into that place and taking it back and holding it and telling the Cameroonians, this was not done lawfully. This was not done in the right way and if you really want it, then the government really has to do the right thing,” he insinuated.
Femi Kayode equally sounded a call to the international community saying the people of Cross River State will never be bound to fold their arms and watch what he terms as injustices being meted on them and he warns even if it didn’t happen today, a time was coming when all will be put to perspective.
“Frankly, I will make this point. If this doesn’t happen today, a time is coming when a Nigerian president will rise up in this country and he will take that territory back in order to restore the honor and dignity of the people of Cross River State and the people of Bakassi and the people of Nigeria itself,” noted the Nigerian statesman.
The oil-rich Bakassi peninsular was handed over to Cameroon officially in 2009 under a UN brokered agreement.
The residents were given time to decide whether they wanted to return to Nigeria, take Cameroonian citizenship or remain Nigerian citizens living in Cameroon. The agreement was reached in 2009 following decades of bitter dispute over who owned the Gulf of Guinea peninsular which almost sparked an open war in 1981 between the two nations.
