By Emeka Nze
Abuja
Delegates to the National Conference yesterday made strong case for compensation to be paid to the people of Bakassi and government of Cross Rivers state over the ceding of the land by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to Cameroun.
The motion however suffered defeat due to its inability to muster majority votes of the delegates.
The delegates made the call during deliberations on the report of the conference committee on Land and Boundary matters.
A delegate from the South South zone, Hon. Orok Duke lamented that when the Obasanjo administration ceded Bakassi to Cameroun the Green Tree agreement was not even endorsed or domesticated by the national assembly to make the agreement binding.
He said the people of Bakassi are going through a very difficult time and the least the country could do after taking away their oil-rich land was to compensate the people in perpetuity.
He recalled that Nigeria lost 31 soldiers in Bakassi in 1981 while defending the peninsula only for Obasanjo to give away the land.
Another delegate from Ondo state, Prof Femi Mimiko, while supporting the call for payment of compensation to the people of Bakassi said Nigeria should take a step further to take back the land from Cameroun since the National Assembly the Green Tree agreement which he described as illegal.
A representative of PRONACO at the conference, Olawale Okuniyi said the federal government should have conducted a plebiscite for the people to decide where they want to belong before their ancestral land was given away to Cameroun.
He suggested that something should be done urgently to address the travails of the people of Bakassi because of the growing discontent in the oil producing area.
While expressing support for the payment of compensation in perpetuity to the people of Bakassi, another delegate from Kano state, Prof Auwalu Yadudu, reminded the delegates that apart from Bakassi some villages near lake Chad was also ceded to Cameroun by the Obasanjo government and the should also benefit from the compensation.
Another delegate from Cross River state, Prof Evara Ejemot Esu said since the ceding of Bakassi to Cameroun the state has suffered huge financial loss as all the oil wells that the state lost.
According to him, Cross River state is no longer a littoral state and should be paid compensation in perpetuity.