The Cross River State Governor, Bassey Otu’s spokesperson, Linus Obogo, has faulted former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, and ex-Attorney General of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa, over the lingering Bakassi Peninsula crisis.
Obogo accused Obasanjo and Aondoakaa, who were in office at different times before 2015, of sidelining constitutional procedures and rewriting history through their actions while serving the country and after leaving office.
Obogo’s reaction comes on the heels of Aondoakaa’s comments during an interview on a popular television programme yesterday, claiming that Cross River State government officials failed to attend key negotiation meetings with the National Boundary Commission before the implementation of the Green Tree Agreement, which ceded Bakassi to Cameroon.
According to Aondoakaa, the state forfeited its claims by “not coming to the round table,” alleging that during crucial boundary discussions, no representatives from the state were allowed to attend to advocate for the residents’ interests.
But, in a response to the legal expert, on Saturday titled “A Dirge for Bakassi: Aondoakaa’s Fallacies and Obasanjo’s Constitutional Profanities,” Obogo dismissed the assertion as “a grotesque distortion” and accused Aondoakaa of revisionism, adding that decisions regarding the handover were made long before any public consultations began.
“To suggest, with such scandalous ease, that Cross River forfeited its ancestral inheritance by mere absence is to insult not only the dignity of a state grievously wronged but to debase the truth itself,” Obogo wrote.
He argued that the so-called consultations were a mere “cosmetic charade,” claiming that the process was pre-determined and that genuine stakeholder engagement never truly occurred.
Obogo further blamed the Obasanjo administration for executing the ceding of Bakassi without legislative backing, noting that the Green Tree Agreement was never ratified by the National Assembly as required by Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution.
The Chief Press Secretary to the governor said: “It was not a treaty ratified by law, but a covenant with constitutional sin”.
The governor’s spokesman alleged that the swiftness with which Nigeria complied with the 2002 International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling lacked precedence globally, claiming it was driven more by elite interests than national sovereignty.
He also accused federal agencies such as the National Boundary Commission, the Council of State, and the then Ministry of Justice of complicity in what he described as “an unholy theatre” that ignored the plight of Bakassi’s displaced population.
The Guild understands that the Bakassi Peninsula, formerly part of Cross River State, was handed over to Cameroon in August 2008 following the ICJ judgment and the 2006 Green Tree Agreement signed under President Obasanjo.
To date, thousands of Bakassi indigenes remain displaced, with ongoing appeals for federal resettlement, recognition, and justice.
Efforts to reach Aondoakaa for further comment were unsuccessful as of press time.
