allAfrica.com: Cameroon: Bakassi - a Community At War With Its People (Page 1 of 3)

On Saturday, January 26, 2008, the Cross River State Government, through the State's Independent Electoral Commission (CROSIEC) conducted elections into the Bakassi Local Government Council. The elections, held in controversial circumstances, brought to the fore the disagreement among people of the traumatised area and highlighted the battle within the enclave.

Circumstances of the elections were as dramatic as the outcome because even before the elections, the people of the area had started singing cacophonous tunes among themselves. Indeed the first sign of trouble came from the State Government when in events leading to the State's Local Government Elections on November 3, 2007, Governor Liyel Imoke said elections would hold only in 17 out of the 18 Local government areas in the state.

He explained that Bakassi was excluded in the elections because there was no administrative structure on ground in the new Bakassi headquarters at Ekpri Ikang. He said government was still in the process of building the local government headquarters and other infrastructure that would enable a government operate in the area, stressing that until that was achieved it would be wasteful to elect officers who would have no where to operate from.

In his words, "first of all, we need to put an administrative structure on ground. If a chairman and counselors are elected and they have no office, nobody will know what the funds allocated will be used for." But while announcing results of the elections, the Chairman of CROSIEC, Sir Patrick Otu said elections did not hold in the new Bakassi Local government Area created by the State Government because of a court injunction restraining the Government from conducting elections in the area until issues pertaining to the resettlement of the people and the status of Abana, headquarters of the ceded Bakassi Local Government Area, before the Federal High Court, Calabar were resolved.

However, while the Chairman of CROSIEC seemed to be giving a different reason from that of the Governor for the botched elections in the area, the Chairman was to say that the injunction had elapsed when he announced elections for the Council for January 26, 2007.

The real crack however became obvious on the day of the scheduled elections in the area when prominent politicians and opinion holders from the Peninsula shunned the elections on the grounds that it was a violation of the injunction issued by Justice Shuaibu Yahuza of the Federal High Court, Calabar that elections should not hold in the New Bakassi until the matter before the Court concerning the proper resettlement of the displaced people from the area ceded to the Republic of Cameroon was heard and determined.

They argued that until the matter brought before the Federal High Court by some political actors from the old Bakassi namely Hon. Okon Archibong Isemin, Hon. Bassey Ita Edet, Hon. Effiong Edet Effiong, Mr. Samuel Asuquo and Prince Edem Nsa, that any elections in the area was illegal and unacceptable to the people. Indeed, the petitioners had written to CROSIEC days before the election reminding the Commission that the injunction was still in place.

Those conspicuously absent during the elections included the Special Adviser to President Umaru Musa Yar'adua on National Assembly Matters, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa; former chairmen of the Council, Ani Eric Esin, Emmanuel Etene, Bassey Ita, and some former political office holders from Bakassi.

Addressing the press shortly after the elections, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa said she stayed away from the election because she did not want to be associated with illegality. She said she was aware that there is a court injunction since July 2007 against the conduct of election in the New Bakassi until certain issues as contained in a substantive matter before the Federal High Court were addressed.

She said it would have been against her conviction as a democrat and a law maker to participate in the elections knowing fully well that the exercise was not only against the wishes of the people, but also against an order of the court. She also said it was unfortunate that elections would be held in the area and the people of Abana, Atabong and other areas not yet vacated by Nigeria would be left out.

"My prayer is that elections should be held in the island of Bakassi (Abana, Atabong and others) because our people are still there. There's an injunction and until the injunction is addressed, I as a law maker will not take part in something that is illegal or out of order," she said.

Ita-Giwa, popularly called Mama Bakassi in the area, said displaced people from the Peninsula have a right to seek redress in court considering the hardship and deprivations they had been subjected to since being dispossessed of their ancestral homeland and that any attempt to gag them would be unfair.

In her words, "people will not want to be treated as if they are going into further slavery. I do not object to their request to be heard. They have their reasons. Their reason is how will you go and move the people in Abana and Atabong in the island to come and vote here in the new area you are talking about in Ikang? Those people are registered voters. During the last governorship elections and the presidential elections, we went there and they voted. They expect that since they have not yet been relocated, they could have gone there for them to vote. It is only Bakassi North that has left. The entire South is still there intact. So they are requesting to be allowed to vote there."

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