We are refugees in our land, Bakassi returnees cry out

The Bakassi returnees in Cross River State have decried their living condition saying they have become refugees in their own land.

The returnees also want the Federal Government to take over their camps. “Since 2013 we have been refugees in our land living in primary schools with aged parents and children,” Etim Ene-Okon, camp leader of the Bakassi returnees lamented on Wednesday while speaking with Cityfile.

According to Ene-Okon, the returnees in the camp are over 3,226, the number he said the Cross River State government could no longer cope with given the numerous challenges.

 “We need Federal Government’s inter- vention.  The presidency should to take over this camp like it did in Borno, we are suffering and from the look of things, the state can no longer manage the camp because of feeding, education, empower- ment and employment. Corroborating the camp leader, Vincent Aqua, the director-general of the state emergency management agency, told our correspondent that the agency could no longer manage the camp due to paucity of fund “because our situation was caused by the Federal Government.”

We want President Muhammadu Buhari to see into this problem by relocating us from here and the Federal Government to take over the camp.

Our people started suffering after we handed over our ancestral home to Cameroun.

They sacked us from the place in a manner that was inhuman because the green tree agreement provided for our choice of stay either there in Cameroon or here in Nigeria, but immediately after the terminal date of the window of the appeal provided for by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), they sacked all of us and killed so many while others have been jailed” The United Nations (UN) refugee team came here to established farm for us but the equipment to use for the farm is not available. Please President Buhari help us out. Since 2013 our people have been suffering here in this camp From September 2014, the Cross River State government stopped sending relief materials to this camp due to financial problems,” he lamented.

MIKE ABANG, Calabar