Daily Trust - the online edition

President Umar Musa Yar'adua

"The exchange of territories, including Bakassi peninsula, under the auspices of the United Nations, will happen on Thursday across the country," Yar’adua said yesterday in Abuja through his spokesman Segun Adeniyi. "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."

Controversy has dogged the planned final pullout of Nigeria from the Bakassi area after a court two weeks ago asked for a stay of action, a ruling government officials said did not specifically stop the handover.

Nigeria started the pullout from Bakassi during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure and the process is scheduled to be completed tomorrow in line with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling of 2001 and the Greentree Agreement signed between Obasanjo and his Cameroon counterpart Paul Biya.

The presidential spokesman said yesterday that since there are two different judgments on Bakassi from two Federal High Courts with concurrent jurisdiction, the government is free to choose which ruling to obey.

Adeniyi said the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation Michael Aaondoaka has advised the president to abide by Justice Adah’s ruling, which gave the go ahead for the handover.

On March 19, Justice S. J.Adah had said, "Since the (Bakassi) issue had been determined at that level (ICJ), the decision binds all sovereign states that are members of the United Nations and no forum domesticum of member states can assume jurisdiction to review again what has been decided by the ICJ."

But Justice Mohammed Umar on July 30 restrained the government from ceding Bakassi to Cameroun pending the hearing of all applications in the case. He said, "It is hereby ordered that parties should maintain the status quo and should not take any step pending the hearing of all applications."

But Adeniyi said yesterday, "There are no legal encumbrances as many imagine. The Attorney-General who will formalize the handover process has made it very clear that he would rely on Justice Adah’s ruling. 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," he said.

He added: "What has been of concern to the President and will be a priority to him is the welfare of the people of Bakassi as a bona fide 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 N3 billion has been released by the Federal Government for their resettlement while another N1 billion was released for those in Borno State who lost territories to Chad in the same ICJ ruling."

Also yesterday, the National Boundary Commission (NBC) said the Federal Government had beefed up security along Bakassi to ensure a peaceful hand over to Cameroon.

The NBC Director General Alhaji Sadiq Diggi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that security agencies had been fully mobilised and doing everything possible for a successful exercise.

"The Inspector General of Police has put all modalities in place as far as police is concerned likewise other security agencies.Everybody is fully aware and doing everything possible to make sure that the final hand over of the remaining part of Bakassi to Cameroon is successful," Diggi said.

Similarly, Diggi told NAN that handing over Bakassi to Cameroon had nothing to do with the Nigerian map stressing that it had never been on the map. Two members of the House of Representatives yesterday differed in their positions on the Federal Gover-nment’s decision to hand over Bakassi. Rep Mohammed Ndume, the ANPP Minority Leader, and Mr Lanre Agoro (PDP-Oyo), spoke yesterday in Abuja in separate interviews with NAN. While Ndume said the proposed handover of Bakassi to Cameroun was illegal, Agoro said the government’s action was in order, since it was in line with the judgment of the International Court of Justice.

Ndume (ANPP-Borno), said government would be doing the wrong thing if it went ahead to hand over the disputed area as planned.

"Government is doing the wrong thing. Posterity will not forgive our leaders. It is very unfortunate," he said. The lawmaker said it was absurd for a government, which believed in the rule of law, not to submit itself to the same rule of law. He said up till the time the National Assembly went on recess, the Presidency had not forwarded the Green Tree Agreement treaty for ratification.

Agoro said the Federal Government had no moral justification not to implement the international treaty. He said Nigeria would be portrayed as an un serious nation, if it failed to honour the treaty.

Agoro advised the Federal Government to comply with the agreement it signed, saying failure to do so would have greater consequences for the country in future.

The lawmaker, a legal practitioner, said the ruling of ICJ was binding on the government and must be honoured, so as not to ridicule the country before the international community. This, he added, was because Nigeria was a signatory to many international treaties and agreements.