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Nigeria: Akpabio Worried Over Bakassi Returnees' Resettlement
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Vanguard (Lagos)
7 August 2008
Posted to the web 7 August 2008
Udo Ibuot
Akwa Ibom State Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio has expressed anger over the channeling of resources for the resettlement of Bakassi returnees who are indigenes of the state to wrong quarters while its citizens are living in shanties and abject poverty.
Governor Akpabio who spoke yesterday at the inauguration of a seven-member committee on the Assessment of the Impact of Bakassi Peninsular Judgment by the International Court of Justice said that about 90 percent of the Bakassi returnees are indigenes of his state.
He said, "That returnees of Akwa Ibom State origin should continue to wallow in such inhuman conditions is totally unacceptable to any government. As a responsive administration, we are duty-bound to take concrete and genuine steps, without prejudice to the decision of the ICJ, towards ensuring that our people who have been displaced in the aftermath of this judgment are resettled and reintegrated."
He charged the committee to review and analyze the International Court of Justice decision as it affects Akwa Ibom people and to assess the impact of the judgment on the boundaries, population, resources and economy of the state.
The governor directed the committee to review effects of the implementation of the judgment by the Federal Government, assess measures so far taken to alleviate the plight of returnees, take census of the returnees now and after August 14 as well as recommend the way forward for resettlement of returnees.
According to him, "We owe Akwa Ibom people the obligation to mitigate the broader impacts of the ceding of the Bakassi Peninsular on the state population, resources, boundaries, and economy."
Responding, the Committee chairman, Chief Assam Assam (SAN) said he was humbled by the appointment and pledged to determine the effects of influx of the Bakassi returnees to the state.
Chief Assam attributed the ceding of the Bakassi Peninsular to Cameroun to Federal Government's lackadaisical attitude in excluding Akwa Ibom indigenes from the legal team that defended the case at the International Court of Justice.
Though he lauded the governor's proactive nature to the Bakassi problem, he took a swipe at the Federal Government's stand in building rehabilitation centres for returnees in Calabar since, according to him, Bakassi residents were mostly Akwa Ibom indigenes.
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The committee has Mr. E.E. Eneyo, Mr. Christian Ukpong, Mr. Ekpenyong Ntekim, Dr. Kingsley Ekwere, Surveyor Okokon Essien as members, while Michael Eyo, permanent secretary in Deputy Governor's Office is to serve as secretary of the Committee.
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