A tough militant and leader of the Bakassi
Strike Force (BSF) in Cross River state, who
goes by the name Benjamin, has given his
conditions for the group to stop their activities
in their stronghold.
Popularly known as G1, Benjamin, on Monday,
October 17, 2016, said his group would
continue to fight for the people of Bakassi until
the Greentree Agreement is observed by all the
parties involved.
Militants in the Bakassi area give condition
Apart from this, he said the military must be
withdrawn from Bakassi local government
area.
The Greentree Agreement was the formal
treaty which resolved the Cameroon-Nigeria
border dispute concerning the Bakassi
peninsula.
In the agreement reached on June 12, 2006,
Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, then Nigerian
president as well as the Cameroonian
President Paul Biya, signed for the withdrawal
of troops and transfer of authority in the
Peninsula.
The agreement was that the Nigerian troops
would be withdrawn within 60 days but allowed
for a possible 30-day extension while Nigeria
was allowed to keep its civil administration and
police in Bakassi for another two years.
But Benjamin, wanted by the Army in
connection with alleged criminal activites as
wwell as the killing of a soldier in September,
thinks this agreement was not honoured.
He argued that Bakassi was ceded to
Cameroun without consideration to human
rights provisions and what the people of the
area want.
In a signed statement reported by The New
Telegraph, Benjamin, for the first time, spoke
out saying: “Again, I want to unequivocally state
that I am not a terrorist as people outside are
made to believe; but I will not sit down and allow
my people suffer from intimidation, neglect and
oppression.
Source: naija.com
No comments:
Post a Comment