Displaced Bakassi women seek help

Gill Nsa-Abasi, Calabar - 08.06.2009

DISPLACED women of Bakassi Local Government Area, Cross River State, have cried out for help, revealing that many of them, since the ceding of their ancestral land to Cameroon and the beginning of the relocation exercise, were yet to secure accommodation.

The women disclosed their plight to the state Commissioner for Local Government Affairs during a courtesy call facilitated by Mrs Grace Eshiet of the West African Network Peacebuilders (WENAP).

They explained their difficult conditions in their new location. Mrs Eshiet said in tandem with the objectives of her organisation, her NGO had responded to their plight, but that it was imperative for the government to handle this problem now.

They said following the formal hand over of Bakassi to Cameroun and the resultant relocation of the inhabitants, they had lost all their belongings, life-savings and dear ones.