Calabar — No fewer than 400 returnees from the ceded Bakassi Peninsula have arrived Nigeria with gory tales of inhuman treatment meted to them by the Cameroonian gendarmes.
Speaking to newsmen at Ikang in Cross River State, the displaced persons mostly fishermen, said they had been undergoing torture in the hands of the gendarmes since the ceding of Bakassi.
They revealed that many Nigerians have died as a result of the recent attack on them by the Cameroonian gendarmes, and that they had to flee the area to avoid being hurt or killed.
Some of the returnees, however, had been deeply hurt. They displayed wounds sustained as a result of the torture from gendarmes. They claimed that their tormentors used clubs, belts and knives on them especially when they failed to comply with their unwarranted demands for huge sums of money.
They said even when they complied with extortion, their fishing boats and nets were often destroyed at the whim of the gendarmes.
In a remark, the Special Adviser to the Governor on State Security Adviser, Mr. Bassey Okim expressed surprise at the unhappy situation, noting that Nigerians living in Cameroon have tried to abide by the laws of the land and wondered why they were still subjected to such inhuman treatment by the Cameroonian gendarmes.
At Ikang, however, the Director General, State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Mr. Vincent Aquah (MON) assured them of adequate attention while in camp.
He assured them that the machinery of the agency was already in motion to ensure accommodation, feeding and other necessary comfort for the victims.
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Silly journalism. All these types of ill conceived writing can push certain countries to war. They who are fishing in Cameroon,don't they know that they are already illegally exploiting another country's resources ? Give us a break sha !!!. We had already solved this problem by handing back Bakassi to Cameroon. Don't go there and provoke another problem for the Federal government. If the Cameroonian gendarmes don't like you,why can't you leave their land and come back? Cameroon is only taking but money ,China doesn't only take money but kill as well. Look at the number of our country people deported in the last 3 months, 3000. The problem isn't with the countries we reside in but our conduct . Does it mean only Nigerian are hated worldwide? No, our people have chosen to dine with the devil ,the results we are all seeing Large number are being sent away from Equatorial Guinea and you don't make any noise. Your trouble is just regret over our loosing Bakassi. Come to reason little minds.
mac_paull44 Firstly let me correctto the readers who you are> you are a french camerounese,your people are the ones that have a military and are 12 m who ilegally rushed their military across internatiomal boundary that seperate cameroun your country and southern cameroons, in 1961. cameroun have owns no bakassi, southern cameroons owns bakassi, and the natives fishermen who have lives in bakassi for thousands of years have had no trouble with southern cameroons, who are basically related to these people. the point im trying to make is, that, nigeria made a startegic mistake by handing bakassi to french cameroun,without raising the british southern cameroons independence issue at the ICJ, EVEN THOUGH ITS OWN COURT IN ABUJA, ASKED NIGERIA to do so, the court would have had to look at all the evidence that cameroun is only a land grabber with no ownership of southern cameroons or bakassi, and the case would atleast been thrown out, or hing on given southern cameroons the bakassi penisula as well as its over due independnece, the 1961 plebescite vote for southern cameroons independnce, was not a vote to make southern cameroons a, province, a region or a canton of french cameroun,or an invitation for military occupation as has been the case, which nullify that plebescite voting effort. soo,,bakassi is southern cameroons not cameroun , and with this settle , the bakassi people would return back and fish peacefully.
@ eb3p!! You have passed a judgement which is far fetched. It's as childish as your writing and myopia. I simply stated my points and you are now the mouth piece if Southern Cameroons??? How much of that country do you know? You are qualifying me as a French Camerounese, where did you get that term from? Learn to respect the views of others you bogus intellectual.