Lagos — A Northern Group, the Northern Friends of the South-South Association, said ceding Bakassi to Cameroun would compound the Niger Delta crisis.

Addressing newsmen in Lagos, President of the group, Alhaji Suleiman Yerima, said ceding Bakassi, a part of the same region to Cameroun would aggravate the situation.

In spite of an injunction by an Abuja High Court ordering the Federal Government not to cede the Peninsula, President Umaru Yar'Adua said there was no going back on the decision.

Yerima insisted that government must abide by the court's injunction and decried the region's underdevelopment, but urged the militants to cease fire, stop destruction of oil installations, unnecessary killings, as well as kidnappings of expatriates and Nigerians.

It urged government to immediately release outstanding funds accruable to the region, adding that "we will continue to agitate for accelerated development in the region in a more peaceful and non-violent way," he said.