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TENSIONS: Cameroon ‘Annexes’ 16 Nigerian Communities, Rapes Chief’s Wife…

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By Tom Moses, Mbo & Emmanuel Una,

THIS certainly is not the best of time for Nigerian communities located along the borders with the Republic of Cameroun. Indeed, 13 years after the ceding of the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroun by the International Court of Justice, ICJ, at The Hague, Netherlands, the Cameroun authorities have been preying on these hapless Nigerian communities in their quest for territorial expansion.

They recently upped the tempo when they again annexed 16 more Nigerian villages following the invasion of parts of Mbo Local Government Area of Akwa-Ibom State located within the mangrove island along the Nigeria/Cameroun maritime boundary.

Aside from invasion of the Nigerian communities, chieftains of the16 Nigerian communities confessed that the Cameroun authorities have already conferred Cameroun citizenship on them as well as issued them certificates of recognition as chieftains of villages in Cameroun just as many  indigenes of the affected 16 Mbo mangrove island communities have succumbed to the pressure of taking up citizenship in Cameroun to save them the ordeals of unsolicited molestations by the Cameroun Gendarmes.

When Benin Annexed 16 Communities, Buhari Visited The Small Country And Made His Infamous Bow For The Dead

It is recalled that similarly NewsRescue reported on the 20th of last November that the Republic of Benin on Nigeria’s West, annexed 16 communities in Nigeria’s Kwara State. few weeks later, President Buhari visited the small country and bowed for a dead soldier at a funeral. 

President Muhammadu Buhari attends the Funeral Service of Late Gen. Mathiew Kerekou (Former President of Republic of Benin) at Friendship Stadium in Cotonou, Benin Republic on 10th Dec 2015

The Nigerian communities annexed by Cameroon include Ine Odiong, Inua Mba, Ine Inua Abasi, Ine Usuk, Ibekwe, Itung Ibekwe and Akwa Ine Nsikak. Others are Ine Ekeya, Ine Ebighi Edu, Ine Etakisib,  Atabong, Akpakanya, Ine Okobedi, Ine Atayo, Ine Akpak and Abana.

This revelation came as a team of the Nigerian National Boundary Commission, NBC, led by Mr. Moses Onyoh visited the troubled area on a fact-finding mission. At a meeting with the NBC’s fact- finding team, the Village Head of Abana, Chief Nyong Etim Efa, disclosed  that although he was appointed a village head by the Akwa-Ibom State Government, the Cameroun Republic has also given him certificate of recognition as village head and has been using his office to obtain taxes from the people of the communities.

“The Cameroun Gendarmes have placed taxes on all the communities. In Abana, we are required to pay N500,000 per month. The last time they came to collect the   money and found out that I didn’t convene a meeting to raise the tax, they raped my wife, beat me up and later detained me in their cell.

“For our youths who tried to resist them, they cut their fishing nets into pieces and seized their outboard engines. We are traumatised by repeated molestations from the Cameroun Gendarmes.

We are seriously considering taking up citizenship in Cameroun since our Nigerian government cannot protect us,” Chief Efa lamented.

Also narrating his ordeals in the hands of the Gendarmes during a recent invasion of communities in the Mbo Mangrove Island, Mr. Etim Asuquo Eyo, a fisherman, complained that their means of livelihood were totally devastated during the invasion.

“On Saturday February 27, 2016, we experienced the worst onslaught on our people. The Gendarmes raided our homes, raped our wives, seized 10 outboard engines (eight 40hp and two 15hp), eight bags of crayfish, stole money from our homes. After that incident, it has been difficult for us to eke out a living again because we don’t have money to buy new outboard engines and fishing nets,” Eyo submitted.

Correcting the nation’s boundary  Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/03/rising-tension-cameroon-annexes16-nigerian-communities/

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