Former Minister of Justice, Prince Bola Ajibola, has restated Nigeria’s displeasure over the continued harassment of its citizens in the Bakassi Peninsula.

Ajibola, who is also the leader of the Nigerian delegation to the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission, spoke yesterday in Abuja, at the 26th Session of the commission’s meeting.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that in October 2002, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague ceded the Bakassi Peninsula, an oil-rich island on the West African coast, to Cameroon.

In the process, some Nigeria villages were caught up in the Bakassi and were promised by the Cameroon Government to be treated fairly.

However, Ajibola said Nigerians living in the peninsula were still complaining of  harassment.

“Though the mixed commission was established to avert and resolve any crisis between the two countries, we in Nigeria have continued to receive reports of brutality, harassment and killing of Nigerians.

“This is no doubt a flagrant violation of Article 3 of the Green Tree Agreement of 2006, which places some responsibilities on the Republic of Cameroon,” he said.
Ajibola said that the situation was so unbearable that Nigeria had to send a special convoy to President Paul Biya of Cameroon in January 2010.

He said that Nigeria was still awaiting the outcome of the committee set up by Cameroon to investigate the atrocities against Nigerians in the peninsula.

In his remark, Mr Amadou Ali, leader of the Cameroonian delegation to the commission, said he had personally intervened in the disputes between the people of both countries.

He said the disputes were of no faults of either the governments of Cameroon or Nigeria, but that of the local communities and their chiefs.