Reps seek review of ICJ judgment on Bakassi
Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal
| credits: File copy
The
House of Representatives on Wednesday asked the Federal Government to
file a process for the review of the International Court of Justice
judgment ceding the Bakassi Peninsula to the Republic of Cameroon.
In a resolution in
Abuja, the House said the process should be initiated before October 10,
ahead of the 10th anniversary of the judgment.
The Federal Government
had in 2006, signed the Green Tree Agreement with Cameroon, formally
ceding the territory to the latter in compliance with the ICJ judgment.
However, the agreement, an international treaty, was signed without the approval of the National Assembly.
Lawmakers, debating the
matter on Wednesday, observed that the decision of the government was in
breach of Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution, which required that such
treaties must be ratified by the National Assembly to have the force of
law in Nigeria.
In a motion by the
member Representing Calabar-South/Bakassi Federal Constituency, Mr.
Essien Ayi, he said his people would continue to oppose the judgment
because government did not exhaust all the remedies before it proceeded
to cede the territory.
Ayi argued that under
Article 61 of the ICJ Statute, a judgment of the court could be reviewed
whenever new facts emerged not known at the time the judgment was
delivered.
According to him, a process for such a review is to be filed before the expiration of 10 years of the delivery of the judgment.
In the case of Bakassi, the expiration date is October 10, 2012.
The lawmaker stated that
“one of these facts is that the 1913 Anglo-German treaty relied upon by
the ICJ to cede Bakassi to Cameroon is in breach of Article 6 of the
General Act of Berlin Conference that enjoined European powers ‘to watch
out the preservation of the native tribes and not to take over or
effect transfer of their territory.’”
Ayi, who noted that
“gross injustice” was meted to the Bakassi people by both the Federal
Government and the United Nations, cited three cases in history where
countries applied for a review of the ICJ judgment.
