Efio-Ita Nyok|14 May 2016|11:27am
On Thursday 12th May, the Director General of Cross River State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Mrs. Betta Edu, upon visiting the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp at Bakassi LGA had this to say, even after 24 hours.
*'I have not been myself since yesterday. I visited the IDPs in Bakassi camp 1…I was taken through 10 "fresh" graves of mothers and children at the camp… honestly the simple question that ran through my mind was "where did this people go wrong? Do they deserve this?
They took their Land, their oil, their source of livelihood (fishing), their identity, their pride…everything. Now those who stayed back have to pay for resident permit on their land…their women are raped every other day, the fisher men arrested and thrown into prison on their land. Guess what education is luxury for their children…women and children sleep on bare floors exposed to unimaginable risk
Yet there was a green tree agreement, those who made the agreement and got the billions sleep in beautiful houses while this young men, women and children continue to die.
The international community have suddenly turned a blind eye and when the UN team come, they spend one hour, rush back and write reports that does not reflect the reality in Bakassi.
Our dear Federal government have totally forgotten this people. This nation has sealed its heart and eyes with hot iron. If they try to beg the federal government to keep to its agreement to provide basic amenities, Bakassi people are immediately tagged with one name or the other and subjected to even more harsh conditions.
Well Cross Riverians are peaceful people. Bakassi people are peaceful people and will go about asking their due peacefully.
I beg once more, let the federal government of Nigeria and the international community revisit the issue of Bakassi…they are in urgent need of help!'
The Green Tree Agreement of President Olusegun Obasanjo and the declaration of the ICJ sitting at the Hague during the presidency of President Goodluck Jonathan have come and gone, and the plights of the people is getting deplorable by the day. And the people have been deserted. But the question is, was the ruling of the ICJ justified?
Efio-Ita Nyok
Is a Blogger & the Editor of Negroid Haven
