Bakassi refugees rebuff relocation attempt

Displaced Bakassi natives,temporarily camped at Akwa Ikot Edem Primary School in Akpabuyo Local Government of Cross River State on Saturday rebuffed attempt to move them to a resettlement housing estate in Ekpiri-Ikang in Bakassi Local Government.

Not less than 1, 800 Bakassi natives, who fled their Efut Obot Ikot community, a settlement in the ceded peninsula, after the Cameroon gendarmes forcefully sent them packing, had been camped at school since March 7, 2013.

Authorities of the Bakassi LGA were chased out of the primary school by the refugees after a failed attempt to evacuate the stranded people.

The scenario would have degenerated into a bloody clash but for the prompt intervention of the police and a handful of military men who accompanied the evacuation team to the camp.

While the team leader, Mr. Iyadim Iyadim, who doubles as the government Liaison Officer in charge of Bakassi was busy briefing the refugees on the need to take them to the resettlement centre in the LGA, some of the refugees surreptitiously blocked the entrance leading to the camp with palm stems, shouting on top of their voices over an alleged “attempt to annihilate remnants of Bakassi people.”

Spokesman for the dislodged natives, Chief Etim Asuquo, said the returnees had refused to move to the proposed resettlement centre because the housing estate was inhabited by ex-militants who had always extorted money from other refugees.

Asuquo said, “We had a bitter experience in that place in 2008 when Bakassi Peninsula was initially ceded to Cameroon. Apart from reallocating the houses to other people who are not refugees, all our stipends (N15, 000 each) were stolen from us by our new neighbours (ex-militants) and that is where the council authorities wants us to go to, we will not go there.

 “Due to the trauma, we went back to Bakassi peninsula to see if I could make ends meet, and then Cameroon soldiers came and brutalised us and you are saying you want to take us back to Ikang again to torture us as was done some years ago. We prefer to die here if government would not resettle us in the place of our choice which is Dayspring.”

PUNCH