The Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Geoffrey Onyeama, on Wednesday said there was no evidence of 97 Nigerians being
killed by Cameroonian Gendarmes.
He said the 97 deaths represented
the accumulation of all the Nigerians that had been killed in previous
incidents in the Bakassi area since 2008.
Mr. Onyeama made the claim before
the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs headed by Nnena
Elendu-Ukeje. The committee is probing the incident.
The minister, who was represented
by the permanent secretary in the ministry, Olusola Enikanolaye, added that
independent investigation had shown that such killings did not occur.
He 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 by the records of the
Nigerian Mission, the death recorded were not orchestrated by the Gendarmes.
He said 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.
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