WORLD> Africa
Nigeria to hand over Bakassi amidst tight security
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-13 23:43

CALABAR, Nigeria -- The Nigerian government is ready to officially hand over the Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon Thursday, an official with the Cross River State government said Wednesday.

Fidelis Ugbo, secretary to the state government told Xinhua in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, that the handing over will be in keeping with the judgement of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and in line with Nigeria's desire to maintain its leadership position and to ensure peace and good neighborliness in Africa and the world at large.

He said the state government is collaborating with the Nigerian federal government to ensure safety of lives during and after the handing over ceremony.

The handing over ceremony is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. local time.

President Paul Biya of Cameroon and Nigeria's former president Olusegun Obasanjo signed an agreement in June 2006 at the Greentree estate in Manhasset, New York, in presence of the then UN chief Kofi Annan, to fulfill a ruling in 2002 by The Hague- based ICJ, which said the area belonged to Cameroon.

However, most of the inhabitants in Bakassi are fishermen with ties to Nigeria, many of whom oppose Nigeria's renouncement of sovereignty on this 1,000-square-kilometer land, the waters off which are believed to be rich in oil.

Nigerian troops withdrew from the peninsula in August 2006, and the peninsula should be officially handed over on August 14, according to the Greentree Agreement.

The sovereignty over the area has been a bone of contention between the two countries dating back to 1913, which culminated in mounting hostilities and miliary confrontations in the early 1990s.

In 1994, Cameroon asked the ICJ to settle a dispute over its boundary with Nigeria, especially the question of sovereignty over the Bakassi peninsula.