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Senate Moves To Avert Nigeria, Cameroon Border Row
L-R: Lagos Commissioner for Agriculture and Cooperatives, Mr Gbolahan Lawal, Gov. Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State and Managing Director, Harmony Abattoir Management services, Mr Moshood Bello, during Gov. Fashola’s inspection visit to Agege Abattoir in Lagos, yesterday. Photo: NAN
The Senate yesterday directed its committee on states and local governments to liaise with the National Boundary Commission to investigate the United Nations’ decision to undertake boundary adjustment between Nigeria and Cameroon.
The upper chamber during plenary condemned in strong terms the attempt to cede part of Danare and Biajua communities of Boki Local Government Area to Cameroon based on “an imaginary projection of the Joint Technical Team and in disregard to subsection 12(1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.”
The Senate therefore urged the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Bello Adoke, to ensure a more effective supervision of the boundary demarcation exercise to forestall the country being short-changed under any guise.
Moving the motion on the issue, the Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, drew the attention of his colleagues to the recent activities of the Joint Technical Team, a sub body of the Nigeria-Cameroon Mixed Commission.
He said the team was mandated to carry out field work to trace, ascertain and reinforce the boundary points between the two countries.
He added that the team went to the villages of Danare and Biajua in Boki local government, Cross River State, aided by Nigerian soldiers to arbitrarily enforce demarcation of the boundary between the two countries.
He expressed concern that on two occasions, the exercise was attempted in the area, there was no representation from Cross River State in the United Nations team led by a Zimbabwean national, Mr. Paul Mbaya.
At the moment, he said Cameroonian security forces are guarding their border communities but there is no security presence on the Nigerian side.
Ndoma-Egba specifically drew the attention of the Senate to the October 10, 2002 adjustment exercise, and recalled that the International Court of Justice to which Nigeria had subjected itself gave judgment in the matter of the land and maritime dispute between Nigeria and Cameroon.
In its verdict, he added, the ICJ awarded ownership of Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon in spite of the strong historical, cultural and legal arguments put forward by Nigeria, a decision that has been trailed by much controversy till date.
According to Senator Ndoma-Egba, based on the ICJ ruling, the Nigeria-Cameroon Mixed Commission was set up under the auspices of the United Nations to give effect to the judgment and carry out detailed demarcation of the boundary between the two countries from Lake Chad to the Atlantic Ocean.
He pointed further that the ICJ judgment did not provide for land demarcation in southern Nigeria but expressly ruled on the maritime boundaries, therefore the land demarcation exercise in Cross River State is contrary to the ICJ judgment.
The Senate leader observed that on one hand, while the borders between the two countries have been successfully demarcated in some sectors, particularly at Lake Chad and Bakassi sectors, the demarcation exercise is still ongoing in other sectors.
He added that the exercise was currently centered around the Danare-Biajua sector in Boki local government.
The lawmaker also said that since the ICJ judgment recognised the Anglo-German boundary of 1913 as the boundary between the two countries in the Danare-Biajua sector, the job of the Joint Techical Team in this sector would be to trace and locate the boundary pillars.
The pillars, he said, were identified as pillars 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 113A and 114 planted under the Anglo-German agreement a century ago in order to reinforce it.
He further expressed concern that while pillars 109, 110, 111, 112, 113 and 114 have been successfully traced with the cooperation of the villagers on both sides of the boundary.
The pillar 113A, he stated, falls between pillars 113 and 114 and which is critical in determining the boundary is yet to be located.
He said rather than explore the area to find pillar 113A following pointers from the villagers, the Joint Technical Team took a short cut approach and has gone ahead to chart a straight line projection between pillars 113 and 114 which it attempted to enforce using armed soldiers before they were prevented by the villagers.
The senate leader described as “hasty and insensitive”, the shortcut approach by the Joint Technical Team which failed to consider the justice of the matter, economic interest of the people, known traditional boundaries and communal affiliation.
This, he stressed, was a potential time bomb capable of generating confusion and crises in the area if not checked.
The Senate Leader was disturbed that the ceding of Bakassi brought and has continued to bring untold hardship to indigenes of the peninsula who had relocated to a land locked area and lost not only their ancestral homes but the primary means of livelihood.
The Deputy Senate leader, Senator Abdul Ningi, said, the ceding of Bakassi was still an illegitimate action because it has not been ratified by the National Assembly.
He said there was the need for the upper chamber to know whether the United Nations technical committee got approval from the federal government before embarking on the exercise.
He said, “If the technical team did not get clearance from the federal government before carrying out the measurement, has made the entire exercise an illegal.”
Senator Thompson Sekibo, suggested the invitation of the National Boundary Commission to guide the senate. Technical equipment should be used to find the missing pole.
He insisted that Nigerians would resist any attempt to shift any land to another country. In African, losing of land to another person is a sign of weakness.
Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, suggested the setting up an ad hoc committee on the issue because the matter under consideration is technical and highly sensitive, hence the need for the senate to have facts.
Senate President, David Mark, proposed the need to get more facts from the senate committee supervising the boundary commission. He stressed the need to make decisions based on well informed facts.
The senate then asked the state and local governments committee as re-enforced, to determine the facts and report back in two weeks.
Mark said, “the matter is very serious, we need all the facts to enable us to take a decisive action on it.”
