Amnesty Program: Militants Protest in Bakassi Over Unkept Promises by Government

A mob group mainly of a youthful demographic identified as militants on Tuesday at Ikot Nakanda in Akpabuyo prevented the chairmen of the two contiguous local councils, Hon. Iyadim Amboni Iyadim and Hon. Emmanuel Okon Bassey of Bakassi and Akpabuyo respectively from gaining access to their Councils citing governments inability to fulfill the amnesty program palliative promised to them as the reason.

It would be recalled that following the ceding of Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroun at the Hague several years ago in the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the people on the Nigerian side of the peninsula were settled in the present Bakassi with handsome promises from the UN, National and Cross River State governments.

And specifically, Sir Alfred Mboto had negotiated the amnesty program in the area on behalf of the Cross River State government. But it seems several years down the line, the issue of amnesty and soothing palliatives for the locals is still in a limbo.

The government scampered on Tuesday to counter the protest as the South South SA to governor Ayade, Ani Esin and the Paramount rulers of the local councils involved, accompanied by a political leader and former chairman of Bakassi PDP, Sir Gerald Esin were sighted in the scene with detailed security personnels.