Skip to main content

"Cameroon Did Not Kill 97 Nigerians"- Minister



Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama on Wednesday said there was no evidence of 97 Nigerians being killed by Cameroonian Gendarmes.
Onyeama said the 97 deaths represented the accumulation of all the Nigerians that had been killed in previous events in the Bakassi region since 2008.
He made the clarification before the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, headed by Rep. Nnena Elendu-Ukeje‎, which is probing the incident.
The minister who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mr Olusola Enikanolaye, revealed that independent investigation had shown that such killings did not occur.
He further explained that the incident started following the deployment in July 2017 of a new Divisional Officer (DO) to Idabato sub- division of Cameroon to administer the Bakassi General Area.
“On assumption of office, the new DO commenced the imposition of new taxes on the residents after a meeting with all the chiefs.
“Accordingly, all men engaged in fishing and other business activities in the area were to pay N55,000, women. 30,000 and churches N50,000 per annum.
“Furthermore, taxes on packets of fish were raised from N200 to N1,000. Butchers were to pay N1,000 per head for goats slaughtered by them.
“The sanctions placed on the residents for violation of the tax rules include seizure of their boats and payment of 200 per cent of the initial tax.
“This accounts for the N100,000 which was hitherto heralded in the news and initial reports as the amount of the tax to be paid by Nigerians”, he said.
He said by the records of the Nigerian Mission, the deaths recorded were not caused by the Gendarmes.
He added that some Nigerians fled their homes and headed for the Ikang Jetty “when the new DO threatened to use force. It was while they were on their way that some of them reportedly drowned”.
“Unfortunately, the leaders who confirmed these assertions to the team had no corpse of persons drowned in the incident as proof of the manner of death,” he said.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

16-year-old pupil impregnated by vice principal gives birth

A 16-year-old pupil of the Government Secondary School, Tunga, Niger State, Faith Galadima, who was impregnated by the school’s vice principal, Mohammed Mohammed, has given birth to a baby boy. The teenager was delivered of the baby at Injita village, Munya Local Government Area of Niger State. The VP had allegedly slept with the pupil sometime in March this year, putting her in the family way. Mohammed was arraigned in court on April 4, 2017 and is standing trial on two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a child, and impregnating a female pupil. The accused was remanded in the prison custody for three months after he pleaded not guilty to the charges. The presiding magistrate, Fatima Auna, had granted the VP bail in the sum of N1m, which she said was in line with sections 35 and 36 of the 1999 constitution, and sections 341 and 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The victim, who narrated her ordeal to journalists on Tuesday, said that she gave birth to the bab
Post a Comment
Read more

2018: Buhari bans recruitment by MDAs, presents N8.612tn budget

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday banned fresh recruitment by all Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies, except by presidential approval. He said this was to manage a rising personnel expenditure that was expected to increase to 12 per cent in 2018. He disclosed that overhead cost would also rise by N26bn in 2018 or 12 per cent increase. Buhari spoke when he presented the estimates of the 2018 budget to a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives in Abuja. The President laid a budget size of N8.612tn before the legislature for 2018, an increase of N1.7tn from the N7.44tn appropriated in 2017. Buhari, who wore sky-blue Hausa native attire and a matching cap, addressed lawmakers for 1hour and13minutes amid applause and intermittent murmurs by senators and members of the House. The President said he had released up to N450bn out of the N2.2tn budgeted for 2017 capital projects as of the end of October. He promised to raise the im
Post a Comment
Read more

Herdsmen demand head, body parts of slain colleague

Fulani herdsmen under the aegis of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria on Tuesday demanded the head and other body parts of one of their colleagues who was killed during a clash with farmers in Ugala, Yala Local Government Area of Cross River State. The slain herdsman, identified simply as Buba, was said to have been beheaded, during a fight between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in the community on Sunday. Several other persons sustained injuries in the fracas. The Vice Chairman of the MACBAN, Alhaji Abdurrahman Abdul, who led a delegation of herdsmen on a visit to the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone Six, Calabar, Mr. Abubakar Marafa, said three other members of the association had been declared missing since the incident happened. He told Southern City News that Buba was on his way to rescue one of his shepherds who was allegedly attacked by farmers when the  incident occurred, adding that the Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayad
Post a Comment
Read more