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From Judex Okoro, Calabar
Bakassi Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have raised the alarm over alleged incessant harrassment and intimidation by the Nigerian soldiers drafted to Ikang community.
As part of security measures along the water areas, the Nigerian Army recently drafted a team under ‘Operation Still Water’ to Ikang border.
In a peaceful protest embarked upon by hundreds of IDPs,
which started from Ikot Effiom Obutong re-settlement camp and ended at Ikang Bakassi fishing port, the protesters expressed frustration at the activities of the security officers, saying it is impacting negetaively on their social and economoc life style.
The protesters among others, accused the soldiers in Bakassi of flogging of fishermen for being in possession of petroleum products, which the IDPs claimed it is used to power thier fishing boats.
The IDPs who came out in hundreds, carried placards with inscriptions “enough is enough” “we are now slaves in our own land,” “soldiers have inflicted us with poverty,” and “in the last 10 months we haven’t seen electricity.
“We pay taxes in Cameroon yet we are not allowed to fish,” and “in our own country where our oil wells were ceded to the neighboring Cameroon, we are like slaves.”
Speaking on behalf of the protesters, the General Secretary of Internally Displaced Persons in Bakassi re-settlement camp, Mr. Linus Asuquo Essien, stated that the returnees are going through econmic hardship as a result of not being allowed by soldiers to buy petrol for thier fishing boats.
Essien said: “Our children can no longer go to school. On daily basis, our people, predominantly fishmen, have at regular intervals, been arrested and locked up in the Cameroon republic prisons.
“Unfortunately non of our leaders in the house of parliament or in high place of authority had bothered to wade into the matter.
“We now go through hunger and starvation in the IDP camp due to our constant stay at home. Our major occupation is fishing, but unfortunately we have been barred by the soldiers from going to fish.
“This is why we are calling on the federal government, United Nations to come to our aide before we perish here. Cameroonians said we are strangers. In Nigeria, our soldiers accuse us of engaging in bunkering. Where do we go from here?”
Also Speaking, Secretary General, Ikang Clan Council, Chief Essien Eyo, wondered why a riverine community, which has 12 out of the 14 villages that make up the community, should be barred from carrying on thier fishing activities.
The traditional ruler maintained that things are so bad that several fishing boats belonging to the fishermen had been burnt.
Speaking, the Aemy Public Relations Officer, Capt. Dorcas Aluko, stated that she wa a course outside the state and can’t comment on the issue at a moment.
However military sources in Calabar denied the allegations, saying that fishermen were using thier fishing boats to smuggle petroleum product to neighboring Cameroon Republic.
