Indigenes of Bakassi in Cross River state, have file a suit against the Federal Government before a Federal High Court in Abuja, as they seek an order that will void the Green Tree Agreement that Nigeria signed with Cameroon in 2006.
The Green Treat Agreement presided over by the United Nations, was accented to by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the agreement affirmed Nigeria’s hand-over of the oil rich region to Cameroon.
In a motion ex-parte moved by their counsel, Mr Festus Ogwuche, the applicants sought an order that would compel the federal government, to by any means available to it, repossess, occupy and take full legal and administrative control of the Bakassi Peninsula.
The motion was filed pursuant to Section 1 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights Enforcement and Ratification Act Cap 10, laws of the federation of Nigeria, 1990, as well as order 34 rules 1(a), 3(1) and (2) of the Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rules (2007).
The suit was endorsed by nine executives of Free Bakassi Association, who sought the order to compel the federal government, President Goodluck Jonathan and the Attorney-General of the Federation, who were all joined as respondents in the suit, to “unilaterally resile and revoke Nigeria’s obligations under the Green Tree Agreement entered into between Nigeria and Cameroon in green tree, New York, USA on the 12th day of June, 2006.”
The Bakassi indigenes say the agreement is invalid and in breach of Articles 1, 2, 20, 21, 22 and 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, Article 1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Article 1(2) of the UN charter, and the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, and being inconsistent with sections 1-3, 2(1) and (6), 13, 14(1) and (2)(b), 17(1), (2)(b), (c ) and (d), sections 19(a) and 9d0, 21(a) of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria (as amended).”
The applicants, argued that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) gave its judgment on the protracted dispute over ownership of the oil rich Bakassi Peninsula, based “on archaic and anachronistic colonial declarations, and communications between colonial officers.”
More so, the applicants said they were neither consulted before former President Olusegun Obasanjo endorsed the Green Tree Agreement, saying they were totally kept out of the picture prior, during and even after the execution of the agreement.
Presiding Judge, Justice Gabriel Kolawole adjourned ruling on the application for October 9th , saying he needed time to carefully peruse the court processes in view of “weighty national issues raised therein.”
