From AIDOGHIE PAULINUS, Abuja
The Republic of Cameroon yesterday insisted that no Nigerian was killed in the Bakassi Peninsula area of the country.
The Minister Delegate in Charge of Relations with the Commonwealth, Cameroon Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Joseph Dion Ngute, said this when he led a three-man delegation to talks with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama.
Recall that 97 persons were reported to have been killed in the Bakassi Peninsula by Cameroonian Gendarmes.
The Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had summoned the Cameroonian Ambassador to Nigeria, Abbas Salahedine for explanations on the maltreatment and killings of its nationals.
But speaking with journalists after a closed-door meeting with Onyeama, Ngute said the visit was at the instance of Cameroonian President, Paul Biya, to discuss issues mutually beneficial to both countries.
Ngute said: “The first of those issues is to inform the Nigerian authorities that for sometimes, we had some issues with the English-speaking regions of Cameroon and to tell the minister and people of Nigeria that those problems have been resolved.
The trade unions that went on strike are back to work and the situation has been normalised. And to thank our brothers and sisters in Nigeria for the understanding they have shown throughout this episode. We have, obviously, a number of radicals, who don’t want to see things the way most people see them and to inform the people of Nigeria that this is what is going on in Cameroon.
It was also to reassure Nigeria that nobody was injured or killed as reported, but that it was a fabrication of the media, he said.