Nigeria has legal grounds to reclaim Bakassi Peninsula from Cameroon, so says the Nigeria Bar Association.
The NBA, which took the position in a communique at the end of its 52nd Annual General Meeting, also threatened to sue the Central Bank of Nigeria if it insisted on going ahead to introduce the N5,000 note into the economy.
In the communique, read by its immediate past President, Joseph Daudu (SAN), the NBA frowned at the inhuman manner Nigerian citizens residing in Bakassi were being treated.
It warned Cameroon to respect the Green-Tree Agreement.
The communique said: “The grossest form of human rights abuses are currently perpetrated against the people of Bakassi by the governments of both Cameroon and Nigeria. In the case of Cameroon, there exists discernible and visible violation of Article 3 (1) and 2 (a) of the Green Tree Agreement of June 12, 2006 which provided inter alia: ‘Cameroon, after the transfer of authority to it by Nigeria, guarantees to Nigerian nationals living in the Bakassi Peninsula the exercise of the fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined in international human rights law and in other relevant provisions of International Law. In particular, Cameroon shall: not force Nigerian nationals living in Bakassi Peninsula to change their nationality.’
“The NBA is aware that there are grounds upon which the government of Nigeria may legitimately apply for a revision of the ICJ judgment on 10th October 2002, and having adjudged those grounds as being worthy of reconsidered by the ICJ.”
On the introduction of the N5,000 note, the NBA said it was a shallow and poorly thought-out initiative by the CBN.
It said the proposal would diminish the lives of Nigerians and push corruption and money laundering to unimaginable heights.