(SINL NIGERIA) The Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio on Tuesday constituted Ad-hoc committee to probe Cameroon’s alleged annexation of Nigerian mangrove and maritime territories.
The Ad-hoc committee will be chaired by Senator Jimoh Ibrahim (APC, Ondo South)
The committee includes, Adeniyi Adegbonmire (Ondo Central), Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa West), Kaka Lawan (Borno Central), Banigo Ipalibo (Rivers West), Agom Jarigbe (Cross River North), Ekong Sampson (Akwa Ibom South) and Aniekan Bassey (Akwa Ibom North-East).
This followed a motion by Senator Aniekan Bassey (Akwa Ibom North-East).
In the motion titled “illegal annexation of Nigerian Mangroves island waters and its crude oil by the Republic of Cameroon, Senator Bassey drew the attention of the Senate to the illegal annexations of Nigerian Mangroves Island situated at Efiat in Mbo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State by the Republic of Cameron.
He noted that the island in focus were not part of the territories ceded to the Government of Cameron by the 1913 Anglo – German treaties and the International Court of Justice’s decision of October, 2002, saying the encroachment into these territories is not only illegal but has led to huge economic loss of more than 2,500 oil wells and gas revenues which ought to accrue to Nigeria.
He added “also very pathetically, it is a monumental national embarrassment that foreign Laws are imposed by the Cameroun Gendarmes on Nigerians living in the 16 Nigerian ancestral homes and villages in the said mangrove island.
He observed that the Mangrove Island and waters situated at the geographical location called Effiat in Mbo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State marking the terminal end of the Gulf of
Guinea down seaward to the Atlantic Ocean coast, is currently under the administrative control of the Republic of Cameron illegally and contrary to the 1913 Anglo-German Treaties, International Court of Justice’s judgment of October, 2002 and Section 12 (1) (2) (3) of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 (As Amended).
He stressed that the island and waters are economically important to the region, as it hosts copious fishing routes and approximately over 2,500 oil wells as well as gas revenues that should accrue to the Nigerian Government but which are lost to the Republic of Cameron as a result of the illegal annexation of the island by the Republic of Cameroun.
According to the lawmaker, “Nigerians living in the said Mangroves Island comprising about 16 villages and ancestral home in an area recognized and provided for in the Nigerian Constitution 1999 (As Amended) and which was not ceded to Cameron Republic by the 1913 treaties and the International Court of Justice judgement, being uncomfortable with Cameron Soldiers in their communities even when no Cameroonian lives in that community took to an open protests”
He therefore urged the Senate to setup an Ad-hoc Committee to investigate the illegal annexation of Nigerian Mangroves island at Etiat-Vibo by the Republic of Cameron and report with necessary recommendations.
