Appeal ICJ judgment on Bakassi now, NBA tells FG

BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI, Abuja

…As group gives Jonathan 7-day ultimatum
Following what it described as the “grossest form of human rights abuses,” the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, yesterday, asked the Federal Government to without further delay, apply for a revision of judgment of the International Court of Justice, ICJ, which in 2002, ceded Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon.

This is even as a consortium of lawyers led by Crownfield Solicitors, has given President Goodluck Jonathan seven days to initiate an appeal proceeding before the ICJ on the matter.

The group, via a letter it forwarded to the Attorney General of the Federation, leadership of the two chambers of the legislature,  National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, Secretary General of United Nations and the Republic of Cameroun High Commission, said it would not hesitate to sue President Jonathan for negligence of duty should he fail to appeal the Bakassi verdict before the October 10 deadline.

In the letter which was signed by its lead counsel, Mr. Festus A. Ogwuche, and made available to Saturday Vanguard, the group argued that the existence of the African Charter as an international treaty binding Nigeria and Cameroun renders ineffective the transfer of the Bakassi Territory from Nigeria to Cameroun under both the purport of the ICJ judgment and the Green Tree agreement.

Meanwhile, in a communiqué it issued in Abuja yesterday, the NBA warned that “the gross violations of the rights of the Bakassi people have the potential of spiraling into major insurrection spawned by the exercise of the right to self-determination.”

“The NBA is aware that there are grounds upon which the Government of Nigeria may legitimately apply for a revision of the ICJ judgment of 10th October 2002, and having adjudged those grounds (or fresh facts that were not considered by the ICJ earlier on) as being worthy of re-consideration: Consequently, the NBA calls on the Government of Nigeria to, without further delay, apply under Article 61 of the ICJ statute of 1946, to the ICJ for a revision of what is an unjust judgment over Bakassi.