Judex Okoro, Calabar
The Cross River State governor, Professor Ben Ayade, has stated that the country has unfinished business with Bakassi, calling on President Mohammadu Buhari to fulfil his campaign promise of reviewing the ceding Bakassi to Cameroon.
The governor insisted that the ceding of the territory did not follow any known law in the country’s and amounts to wickedness of Nigeria against the people of the territory.
Speaking at Ifiang Ayong in Bakassi local government area while inaugurating a 52 housing unit built by his administration to help resettle the displaced people of the area, he decried the condition of the people in the area and added that injustice to one is an injustice to all.
Ayade said: “The Ceding of Bakassi to Cameroon did not follow any known law in the country and amounts to an illegality. Besides, the President is a man of integrity and should review the issue of Bakassi which he promised during his last visit to the state.
“We call your attention to the wickedness of Nigeria against the people. We draw the consciousness of the President to the people of Bakassi because the country has unfinished business here.”
Speaking on the housing project, Ayade said it is the first social housing in Africa where the ownership is in perpetuity as shelter is what separates humans from animals.
He further said that any government that fails to provide shelter to its people has failed as the real measurement of government is how many people you have lifted out of poverty
Also speaking, HRH Etinyin Etim Okon Edet, Paramount Ruler of Bakassi and Chairman, Cross River State Council of Chiefs, said the problem of Bakassi lies with the Federal Government and not with Cross River State.
“For the past eighteen years your Excellency, we have been faced with humanitarian, political, social and economic challenges and have faced them with equal minds with the known fact that the problem of Bakassi lies with the federal government.
“We have become a moving caravan, moving from one area to the other, to the other, and I plead with you to acquire an empty land, map it out, survey it, and give us the title so that the Bakassi people can be resettled properly.
“This area that we are now is very beautiful but who will be their clan head, village head or paramount ruler when they relocate here, so I beg of you to end this merry go round by giving us an empty land so that we can finally be resettled”, he said.
On her part, the Chair person of the Allocation Committee of the Housing Estate, Senator Florence Ita Giwa, said the project has brought succour to the people of the area.
According to her, the estate is a fulfilment of the promise made by the governor when he visited the place years ago.