FG Urged To Expedite Demarcation Of Nigeria-Cameroon Boundary

Fill scene of some displaced people of Bakassi

By Oladipupo Mojeed

A lawmaker in the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly has called on the federal government to expedite action on the demarcation of Nigeria’s maritime boundary with the Republic of Cameroon.

Samuel Ufuo, who is representing Mbo State Constituency, a riverine local government area sharing a maritime boundary with Cameroon, said the area has been enmeshed in boundary disputes which have left scores displaced from their homes.

The demarcation, according to him, has become very urgent as Cameroon has renamed Bakassi Peninsula ceded to it as “Erong peninsula”.

Distinction

In a press conference to mark his 44th birthday, Ufuo said there is an urgent need for a distinction of Mbo mangrove island from Bakassi peninsula.

“It is only a clear demarcation of our boundary that will abet the deliberate misalignment of our maritime boundary and systemic annexation of Nigerian territories to Cameroon”. He said

According to him, a group of communities on the Mbo mangrove island decimated by continuous ocean surge now existing as estuaries have been annexed by Cameroon.

The lawmaker stated that the estuaries which were hitherto part of the Mbo mangrove island are a departure from the Bakassi peninsula lying eastward of Rio Del Rey river.

“The international boundary places the Mbo mangrove island under the territory of Nigeria even though they seem to be tacitly annexed to Cameroon. Article 19 of the 1913 British-Anglo-German treaties clearly assert separate identities for the mangrove island and Bakassi peninsula.

“Cameroon did not include Nigerian Mbo mangrove island in their statement of claims to the ICJ, neither did the court grant it any right of sovereignty over the mangrove islands”, he stated.

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