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A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has restrained the Federal Government from going ahead with the final ceding of the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon slated for August 14, 2008.
Making the preservative order on Thursday, Justice Mohammed Umar said, the justice of this case is that parties to this suit should maintain the status quo, so that the res (substance) will not be destroyed.”

According to him, ``the res, is southern Bakassi, which is to be ceded by the defendants on Aug. 14. ``It is hereby ordered that parties should maintain the status quo and should not take any step pending the hearing of all applications.”
The suit was filed by some Bakassi natives led by two former chairmen of Bakassi Local Government, Chief Emmanuel Etene and Mr Ani Esin, to stop the ceding of the territory to Cameroon.

They are seeking N456 billion as compensation before the cession could take place.
Meanwhile, further hearing in the case has been adjourned till October 20, 2008 when the court would have resumed from annual vacation.
It would be recalled that Nigeria and Cameroon signed the “Green Tree
Agreement'' under which Abuja agreed to cede the peninsula to Yaounde after the International
Court of Justice at The Hague ruled that the territory belonged to Cameroon.
According to the terms of the agreement, which was signed in New York on June 12, 2006, Cameroon was to assume full sovereignty over the peninsula on August 14, 2008.

In his reaction to the order of the court, the Cross River Government, represented by its Deputy Director of Civil Litigation, Mr. Bassey U. Bassey, said the order “is not capable of being obeyed.”
According to him, “this order is not capable of being obey because this court cannot sit as an appellate court on the judgment of the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
“All the issues in this case as well as the final cession of Bakassi are fallout from the judgment of the ICJ.”

Counsel to the plaintiff, Mr. Kayode Fasetire, however, said that the suit was not to challenge the judgment of the ICJ but the modalities for its implementation.
The plaintiffs, led by two former chairmen of Bakassi Local Government, Chief Emmanuel Etene and Mr Ani Esin, are seeking N456 billion as compensation before the cession.
They also want the court to order the Federal Government to resettle their people in a place of their choice before the cession.

Besides, the plaintiffs are calling for the amendment of the 1999 Constitution to reflect the cession and their relocation to a new home.
On the ceded areas of Bakassi, the plaintiffs said they have rejected the resettlement of the affected people in the newly created “New Bakassi.”
According to them, “New Bakassi is already inhabited by people other than Bakassi people and the inhabitants are hostile to the Bakassi refugees.”
They also said that New Bakassi was landlocked and ideal for farmers and not fishermen like them.
The plaintiffs therefore want an order of the court “directing the respondents to resettle them at Nsutana Iyata in Cross River or any other area or location in the state where they might choose by way of plebiscite or referendum.”

It is their contention that the 206,000 citizens of Bakassi are entitled to be protected and catered for by the Federal Government.
They alleged that the Cameroonian authority, in whose hands the Federal Government left their fate, had a history of imposing undue taxes, molesting, assaulting and killing Nigerian citizens in Bakassi.
Joined as respondents in the suit are President Umaru Yar'Adua, the National Assembly, Attorney General of the Federation, the Governor of Cross River and the Cross River State House of Assembly.