Retention of Bakassi LG in Nigeria fraudulent – Efik leaders

Elders and leaders under Efik Eburutu Patriotic Front, in Cross River State, have described the retention of Bakasi Local Government Area by the state government as a fraud.
The organisation, in a statement jointly signed by its chairman, High Chief Eyo Eyo- Cobham and Secretary, Mr. Ekpenyong Ekpe, said that there was no entity called Bakassi in Nigeria again, following the ceding of the area to Cameroun Republic.
According to them, the ceding of Bakassi to Cameroun by the International Court of Justice, ICJ, has not been contested by the Federal Government despite having the opportunity to do so.
They noted that the Cross River state government illegally adjusted the boundary of Akpabuyo Local Government Area and created New Bakassi Local Government Area without ratification by the National Assembly.
According to the elders, “the Cross River Boundary Adjustment Law has not received the consequential National Assembly’s approval because it was done without due process and in total violation of Section 8, subsection 3 (A-D) and Section 9, subsection 1-4 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“The fake Bakassi council has continued to receive billions of naira of financial allocation from the Federal Government with nothing to show for it.”
The Efik leaders condemned “the treacherous expunging of Bakassi Peninsula, an integral part of Efik Kingdom from the cartographic and demographic maps of Nigeria without the knowledge of the King (Obong) and Chiefs of Calabar and Bakassi Peninsula.”
They appealed to the Federal Government to revisit the contentious resettlement issue as thousands of Nigerians displaced as a result of the ceding of Bakassi to Cameroun are still not resettled.