By Musikilu Mojeed, Ihuoma Chiedozie and Chukwudi Akasike :
Gun shots will not be heard, nor will blood be spilled on today,Thursday morning when Nigeria will finally and irrevocably hands off a vast expanse of oil-rich land and sea, known as Bakassi Peninsula, to Cameroun.

The handover will climax almost 70 months of high- powered negotiations between Abuja and Yaounde on how to make the implementation of the October 10, 2002 International Court of Justice judgment on the peninsula hitch-free.

Already, President Umaru Yar’Adua has directed the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa, to conduct the ceremony at exactly 11am.

About N4bn has so far been committed to the handover process by the Federal Government which also ordered security tightened along Bakassi.

The Special Adviser to the President on Communications, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, told journalists in Abuja that Aondoakaa would rely on the March 19, 2004 ruling of the Federal High Court in handing over the area.

Adeniyi, who spoke against the backdrop of the July 31, 2008 Federal High Court, Abuja order stopping the handover, said that the Federal Government had obtained the Certified True Copy of the March 19 judgment which affirmed the ICJ verdict in favour of Cameroun.

The presidential spokesman, however, said that the decision to transfer Bakassi to neighbouring Cameroun was “a painful” one for Yar’Adua.

He said, “With respect to Bakassi, fortunately, there are no legal encumbrances as many imagine. The Attorney-General of the Federation who will formalise the handover process has made it very clear that he would rely on the March 19, 2004 ruling of the Federal High Court delivered by Justice S. J Adah.

“I am not a lawyer but I have been told that the Nigerian legal system has provisions for this kind of situation where courts of concurrent jurisdiction would give different rulings on the same issue.

“I am also aware that the Federal Government last week formally sought and obtained the Certified True Copy of Justice Adah’s ruling which had stated in part:
“From the further affidavits of the plaintiffs it is clear that there was a dispute over the boundaries between Nigeria and Cameroun and the ICJ delivered the judgment on October 10, 2002. The part of the territory the plaintiffs brought before the court was involved in the area litigated upon at the ICJ.

“Since the issue had been determined at that level, the decision binds all sovereign states that are members of the United Nations and no member-state can assume jurisdiction to review again what has been decided by the ICJ.”

Adeniyi added that the handover would go ahead due to the commitment Nigeria made to the international community.
He said, “The exchange of territories, including the Bakassi peninsula, under the auspices of the United Nations, will happen on Thursday across this country.

This handing over process, as painful as it is for everyone, including the President, is a commitment we have made to the international community and we have a responsibility to keep it.

“What has been of concern to the President and will be a priority for him is the welfare of the people of Bakassi as bonafide citizens of Nigeria who have found themselves in a territory legally given to another country and I can assure you that efforts have been made to ensure their comfort and to date about N3bn has been released by the Federal Government for their resettlement while another N1bn was released for those in Borno State who lost territories to Chad in the same ICJ ruling.”

But the Director-General of the National Boundary Commission, Alhaji Sadiq Diggi, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja that about N1bn was released by the Federal Government in 2007 as the welfare package of the 30,000 Bakassi people hitherto in Abana and Achibong.

In Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State Government on Tuesday called on the Federal Government to build a resettlement centre for the displaced Bakassi indigenes in the state.

The State Deputy Governor, Mr. Patrick Ekpotu, said that the number of Bakassi returnees in the state was increasing on a daily basis.
Ekpotu, who put the number of registered returnees at over 37,000 said, ”There was supposed to be a resettlement centre that will have schools and other facilities to cater for the need of the displaced Bakassi returnees.

“We understand the federal government has established such centres in other states. We are not quarrelling with that. But our immediate concern is that Akwa Ibom State is where the pain of the entire situation is felt.

“The Federal Government should be able to build a centre here in order to relieve us from these difficulties.”

Meanwhile, Mbo Local Government Area has increased the number of registration centres for the displaced Bakassi people from four to 10.
Some of the centres are at Oduo Ebuhu, Esuk Enwang, Inua Abasi, Utan Udombo, Obio Iyata, Utan-Brama, Ebuhu and Udessi Isong-Inyang.

The Chairman of the LGA, Mr. Victor Antai, who disclosed this to one of our correspondents, said that as at Monday, there were over 4,500 Bakassi returnees in the council.

He said, ”We had to increase the registration centres to quicken the process of registration, which is supposed to end at the weekend. Many of them are coming out to register so that government will know the number of those to cater for.

“Though the situation was initially difficult to manage, we have adapted and will end the exercise by Saturday this week.”
Prior to the ICJ judgment, there were about 306,000 Nigerians resident in Bakassi.