Over 2,500 Nigerian fishermen displaced at the ceded Bakassi Peninsula yesterday protested over alleged rape of their women, homelessness, harassment and inability to fish on the waterways.
The protesters made up of former natives of the ceded oil-rich island, said that they no longer have place to call their home, security or means of living as Cameroun had taken control of the island.
Some of the placards carried by the protesting fishermen had inscriptions such as “Obago, Gowon, De Don, MmaGiwa, Etinyin,” “Where is Bakassi,” “Our women/children have been abused sexually due to the loss of our land,” “Bakassi returnees are not settled, yet the land has been ceded out, where do we stand.”
Other placards by the fishermen and women that came with their fishing tools like nets and paddlers were: “We have lost so much, houses, farmlands, products, canoes, fishing nets, how do we start over” and, “Idiosyncrasy of our leaders led to the loss of our land.”