Posted by By GABRIEL DIKE, Osogbo and JAMES OJO, Abuja on
Less than 24 hours after the ceding of Bakassi to the Camerounian Government by the Yar'Adua's administration, the Federal Government once again came under attack as the Secretary General of Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Dr Abdul-Lateef Adegbite decried the decision.
Less than 24 hours after the ceding of Bakassi to the Camerounian Government by the Yar'Adua's administration, the Federal Government once again came under attack as the Secretary General of Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Dr Abdul-Lateef Adegbite decried the decision.
His words: 'I am surprised the federal government ignored a High Court without appealing the judgment at the Court of Appeal to set aside the lower court judgment. I would have expected the federal government to wait for the decision on the appeal before surrendering part of Nigeria to the Camerounian.'
Adegbite who is also the Baba Adinni of Egbaland disclosed that not much would have been wasted if the federal government had waited for six months to study the High Court judgment and other related issues on the disputed Peninsula before rushing to cede Bakassi to Cameroun.
The NSCIA scribe also faulted the ratification process by the National Assembly saying the lawmakers acted after the deed had been done even when there was a court judgment on the case.
Also former spokesman of the House of Representatives, Hon Ubani Ezeuiche has slammed the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa and carpeted President Umar Musa Yar'Adua on the handing over of Bakassi Peninsula.
Ubani described as absolute rubbish, Aondoakaa's defence that the people of Bakassi could remain in Bakassi and still carry out their normal activities without paying taxes.
Ubani said that the action of the federal government on the cessation showed that President Yar'Adua took Nigerians for granted, when he decided to ignore the National Assembly's stand on Bakassi issues. He noted that it was a clear violation of the constitution he swore to defend and uphold.
Taking the minister to the cleaners, Ubani said 'The minister is talking rubbish, absolute rubbish, what kind of Attorney General is that? How can he say that they will stay in Cameroun without paying tax? What kind of country is governed like that? He asked. Ubani said that it was like the Minister did not read history well to know that 'even when Bakassi was still in Nigeria, Cameroonian Gendarmes always went there to harass them and collect tax from them, not to talk of now that they are ceded to Cameroun.
'Most Nigerians believed that the action of the government is wrong, there is a link between Nigeria and Cameroun. This government has nothing to prove to Nigerians, it only showed that they have no listening ears.
'It is annoying and disappointing to have handed over Bakassi by the federal government in flagrant disobedience to the clarion calls by Nigerians not to obey the International Court ruling on Bakassi,' he posited.
According to him, 'No country has ever ceded its country, no country has ever obeyed the International Court ruling, we do not know whom they are trying to impress.'
'There is example, for a very long time Morocco and Mauritanian and it has not been resolved. It is a violation of the Nigeria law, whom we are trying to impress, what the minister is saying it absolute rubbish,' he added.
He said that it was unfortunate that the Federal Government refused to listen to the advice of the military high command about the action taken by the government of Obasanjo on the handing over of Bakassi, as revealed before the Senate by the Chief of Defence Staff.
As a result of growing disquiet over the ceding, Ubani noted that the last is yet to be heard.
'We need to also warn that we may not have heard the last about this matter. The Niger Delta people are now beginning to link that to the crisis we have there. The same thing we are talking about. These people in Niger Delta say they are not accepting it. The attack Nigeria has been having from the militants, I think nobody should be surprised if they intensify and continue.
'It is possible that the whole Niger Delta might erupt, that is why I say we have not heard the last of this,' he said.
He noted that National Assembly members too could shared from the blame because originally it ought to have stopped the federal government from going ahead with the ceding.