Bakassi IDPs protest military harassment in Cross River

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Bakassi, Cross River State have engaged in a massive protest over alleged harassment by the Nigerian Army’s ‘Operation Still Water’ deployed to Ikang area of Bakassi.

The peaceful protest kick-started from Ikot Effiom Obutong re-settlement camp and ended at Ikang Bakassi fishing port, with the protesters coming out in hundreds and expressing their frustration and grievances over what they described as “intimidation and harassment by the soldiers,” and slavery in their own country.

The IDPs accused soldiers of flogging fishermen for being in possession of petroleum product which, they claimed, is used to power their fishing boats.

The protesters carried placards with various inscriptions as; “enough is enough”, “we are now slaves in our own land”, and “soldiers have inflicted us with poverty”.

Narrating their ordeal on behalf of the protesters, the General Secretary, Internally Displaced Persons (IDP)s Bakassi re-settlement camp, Mr. Linus Asuquo Essien, explained that, “Our children can no longer go to school. On daily basis, our community residents who are predominantly fishmen have at regular intervals been arrested and locked up in the Cameroon Republic prisons.

“We now go through hunger and starvation in the IDP camp due to our constant stay at home. Our major occupation is fishing, unfortunately, we have been barred by the soldiers from going to fish.

“We have over a hundred fishermen who had been arrested by the Cameroon gerdams and locked up in their prisons just because they engaged in fishing.

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“This is why we are calling on the Federal Government, the United Nations, to come to our aid before we perish here. Cameroonians said we are strangers. In Nigeria, our soldiers accused us of engaging in bunkering. Where do we go from here?” he queried.

Similarly, the Secretary-General, Ikang Clan Council, Chief Essien Eyo, recounted that a community, which has 12 out of the 14 villages making up the community reside basically in the riverine area had been barred from carrying on their fishing activities.

The IDPs further accused the military deployed to Ikang of extortion, intimidation and harassment of internally displaced persons who are majorly fishermen and women.

“In the last 10 months, we haven’t seen electricity. Yet we pay taxes. In Cameroon, we are not allowed to fish. In our own country where our oil wells were ceded to the neighbouring Cameroon, we are like slaves.

“We have no food to eat, our children have dropped out of school. Our boats are parked because we lacked petrol to power our boats for fishing.

“They accused us of engaging in oil bunkering, even when there are no pipelines in Bakassi. The NNPC water fuel station that used to sell petroleum products to us now lies fallow because we are not allowed to buy petrol for fishing,” he alleged.

When contacted the Army Public Relations Officer (PRO), Captain Dorcas Aluko, stated that she was outside the state and could not comment on the issue as at when contacted.

Meanwhile, military sources in Calabar denied the allegations, saying “fishermen were using their fishing boats to smuggle petroleum product to neighbouring Cameroon Republic.”