More Molestations From Camerounian Officials

Barely eight months into the inhuman ceding of Nigerian territory to the Cameroun Republic by the Federal Government of Nigeria, Nigerian fishermen and traders in Bakassi Peninsula are crying out to Nigerian authorities and the international community over the torture, rape, cold blooded murder, destruction of property and other life-threatening conditions that they are subjected to by officials of Cameroonian officials.

Investigation by Daily Independent showed that Cameroonian officials do not only molest Nigerian traders and extort money from them, they actually beat such traders and fishermen with machetes and metal rods, subjecting them to extreme human torture, and in the process destroy goods worth millions of Naira.

According to one of the victims who said that he recently escaped being killed by some Cameroonian security officials who had attacked them on his recent fishing expedition to the high seas, “the Cameroonian military and security officers no longer demand for monies like they used to do; they attack us, vandalize our boats, seize our out-board engines, cut our nets into the sea, beat us with machetes and metal objects, and even kill some of our people.

“There are so many women who have been made widows today. Some children have lost their fathers to this high-handedness from Cameroun officials, and it is increasing on a daily basis. We have complained to Nigerian officials including the governors of Akwa Ibom and Cross River States, the Nigerian Senate, the Cameroun Consulate amongst several authorities in and outside the country.”

Recalling how a married woman was gang-raped by Cameroonian security officials who later on threatened to deal with the people some time last year, Moses Ikoedem Udo, a fisherman and community leader, expressed bitterness that even after making frantic appeals to the Nigerian authorities to intervene, nothing has been done.

In his words, “the Nigerian authorities make it look as though we are no longer Nigerians. They have abandoned us to fate, and this fate is so cruel that we cannot do anything. We are forced to pay tax and levies amounting to more than N250, 000 per head and per boat, fishing gears and outboard engines. The cruelty is so much.

“We have always stayed on this island. More than eight generations of our fore-bears have always lived on this island until the Nigerian authorities decided to sell it to Cameroun. Come to think of it, we have suffered losses in excess of N2 billion due to the destruction of property by Cameroonian security officials.

“The authorities in Nigeria, Cameroun, the African Union, the United Nations and the international community can intervene by asking the Cameroonian authorities involved in this series of atrocities to desist from at least, violating the terms of the Green Tree Agreement which ceded Bakassi Peninsular to Cameroun. They are killing us.”

Another victim, Basil Eyak, a trader who plies the route often and lives on the island, lamented the ordeals Nigerian face in the peninsular, stating that there appears to be a systematic pogrom of Nigerians who originally own the place, by the Cameroonian authorities.

He explained that for any Nigerian to use log or any wood to support his house on the island, Cameroun officials charge them N10, 000 , “and when they catch us on the high sea, they don’t only beat us, they destroy our fish and crayfish, destroy our nets and seize our outboard engines. After this, they tell you to go an inform President Yar’Adua of what has happened. They always infor us that Yar’Adua sold the place to them.

“The always tell us that if we don’t leave the island on our own, they will force us to leave the place. Some of them even claim that Nigeria is a big-for-nothing poor country that cannot do anything to Cameroun, and that the day Nigeria messes up; they will get France to override the country, and claim more territories in the Niger Delta region.”

Article 8 (4) (a) of the Green Tree Agreement which ceded the territory to Cameroun states inter alia that Cameroun shall “facilitate the exercise of the rights of Nigerian nationals living in the zone (BAKASSI) and access by Nigerian civil authorities to the Nigerian population living in the zone.”

Article 8 (4) (b) of the agreement which was witnessed by five countries including the United States of America, Britain and France, states that, “(Cameroun shall) not apply its customs and immigration laws to Nigerian nationals living in the zone on their direct return from Nigeria for the purpose of exercising their activities.”

Article 8 (4) (d) of the agreement declares that the Cameroonian authorities shall “allow innocent passage in the territorial waters of the zone to civilian ships sailing under the Nigerian flag, consistent with the provisions of this Agreement, to the exclusion of Nigerian war ships.”
Denis Okon Ente, a community leader and Secretary General of the Nigerian Development Union, Abana, whose father was once a village head of the community there, explained that the Cameroonian authorities have grossly violated articles of the Green Tree Agreement.
In his words, “Nigerian fishermen, traders, transporters and residents of the island involved in their legitimate businesses have not only been molested, beaten, killed, but several taxes and the imposition of Cameroonian customs have been forced on Nigerians doing businesses here. It is very oppressive and inhuman.”