By Innocent Anaba

Former governor of Cross River State, Mr. Donald Duke, yesterday, hinted that President Paul Biya of Cameroon, frustrated every effort made by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to  resolve the dispute over the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula.

Speaking at the 60th birthday lecture in honour of Justice Charles Archibong (rtd),  in Lagos, Duke said that Obasanjo and his entourage were, on one occasion,  kept waiting for about three hours before they were attended to by the Cameroonian president.

*Olusegun Obasanjo

According to him, several meetings were held behind the scene to avoid going before the International Court of Justice, but the Cameroonian leader frustrated the efforts.

He said it was later discovered that the reason Obasanjo was snubbed was due to an earlier confrontation between President Biya and former Military Head of State, late General Sani Abacha, over the issue.

He said: “No one questions the ancestral ownership of Bakassi. Behind the scene, there were lots of works and meetings that went on. The problem of Bakassi did not start with the civilian administration. The case actually went to court in 1996, even before we were sworn  into office in 1999.

“There was this famous world tour by President Obasanjo. One of the places we visited was Cameroon. We arrived at the airport, met with President Biya, who was seeing-off another leader, but he snubbed us. He left us at the airport for over three hours. We were there and the embassy staff did not know what to do. Grudgingly, he met with us, and lectured us on Bakassi. Later on, we found out that he was reacting to an earlier confrontation he had with late General Abacha.

“We thought we could settle the matter out of court, because we knew we should never have gone to court in the first place, we didn’t stand a chance  but Cameroon was adamant.  We took the matter to the African Union and the Union tried to facilitate peaceful resolution of the matter, but it couldn’t work.”

He said that after the judgment of ICJ, the then President Obasanjo tried to remedy the situation by seeking protection from Britain and United State but they were not ready to assist.