BAKASSI: NIGERIA NOT LOSING ECONOMICALLY; DR DOYIN OKUPE

The Special Adviser, Public Affairs, to President Goodluck Jonathan says Nigeria is not losing much economically following the closure of the ten year window given the country to appeal the ownership of Bakassi Peninsula, if fresh facts emerge.

Dr Okupe spoke to me in an interview on Coolfm Abuja's Nigeria Watch last Friday. He said while Bakassi has an oil deposit of about  600 million Barrels, in that same region, where Nigeria still has ownership, about 6 Billion Barrels in Oil deposit has been recorded.

Meanwhile, according to allafrica.com, following the failure of the federal government to seek a review of the 2002 judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Bakassi Peninsula, there are indications that some indigenes of Bakassi have commenced preparations to seek self-determination towards forming a separate state.

The Bakassi Support Group disclosed this Friday at a media briefing in Abuja. The group made up of some eminent citizens from Cross River State accused the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr Mohammed Adoke, of misleading the government with regard to new facts and evidence upon which the country could have filed for a review of the judgment.
But the Bakassi People's General Assembly chaired by former Senator Florence Ita-Giwa has dissociated itself from the call for Bakassi indigenes to join other ethnic nationalities of Southern Cameroun to form a sovereign state.