Officials: Nigeria won’t withdraw from disputed territory believed rich in oil

By John MurrayAssociated Press Writer ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) – A U.N.-backed accord for a territorial dispute in Africa’s oil-rich Gulf of Guinea appeared to be on shaky ground Monday, with some officials saying Nigeria no longer planned to abide by a Wednesday deadline to withdraw its troops. There was no immediate confirmation from Nigerian federal government officials, who refused comment after closed-door meetings Monday on the territorial dispute. The dispute centers on the Bakassi peninsula, a 665-square-kilometer (260-square-mile) strip of land between Cameroon and Nigeria that is believed to be rich in oil. The peninsula juts into west Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, which the U.S. Department of Energy says holds up to 10 percent of the world’s oil reserves. Cameroon and Nigeria both claim the peninsula, and nearly went to war over it in 1981. Sporadic clashes in the dispute killed dozens in the 1990s. The two neighbors subsequently agreed to submit the dispute to a World Court ruling and to U.N. mediation, leading to Wednesday’s agreed-upon deadline for Nigeria to yield the peninsula to Cameroon. But with the deadline looming, the chairman of Bakassi’s municipal council said Monday that Nigeria would pull out neither troops nor administrators. “We are going back satisfied that the Nigerian government is behind us, that our place belongs to us, and we’re not going to move an inch,” Ani Essien told reporters after he met with Nigeria’s House of Representatives. Essien Ayi, who represents Bakassi in the lower chamber of the national legislature, was equally defiant in dismissing the deadline: “We’re not bothered by the Sept. 15 deadline. We’re not going to Cameroon.” Representatives also were briefed by senior officials who represent Nigeria in a U.N.-backed joint commission meant to oversee the peninsula’s handover to Cameroon. The commission was formed after an October 2002 ruling by the World Court at The Hague that awarded the territory to Cameroon. Bola Ajibola, Nigeria’s chief negotiator in the joint commission, refused comment as he left the meeting. Officials at Nigeria’s Defense Ministry and presidency also declined comment. A source who attended the briefing said Ajibola informed lawmakers that Nigeria was seeking more time to negotiate with Cameroon. In Cameroon, Information Minister Jacques Fame Ndongo said his country would wait for Wednesday’s deadline. “For the moment, we must be patient,” Ndongo said. Nigeria’s House of Representatives passed a resolution two weeks ago that urged President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government to seek a U.N.-supervised referendum in Bakassi to determine if the territory’s 100,000 people want to be in Nigeria or Cameroon. In its 2002 ruling, the international court agreed with Cameroon that it had been granted the peninsula under a 1913 treaty between the German and British colonial powers. Nigeria rejected that decision, arguing the ruling was invalid because it was based on colonial treaties that it considers illegitimate. It accused the court’s French, German and British judges of bias. But it later agreed to abide by the ruling, and some 36 villages in their northern frontiers have already been exchanged by both countries.