Stop Demarcation To Cede ‘Sina’ In Adamawa To Cameroon – Reps

The House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on International Boundary Dispute has directed that the demarcation exercise to cede Sina Area in Michika Local Government Area of Adamawa State to the Republic of Cameroon be halted immediately.

Chairman of the Ad hoc Committee, Beni Lar, gave the ruling during a hearing on the series of lingering boundary Hotspots across the Nigeria-Cameroon boundaries which stretches from the Lake Chad region down to Cross River estuaries.

The hearing was also to assess the role of the military, para-military and security agencies to safeguard the borders and territorial integrity of the country.

According to Lar, the house will continue this engagement with the relevant communities and the boundary commission and come up with a solution.

“Let us go on a fact-finding mission and then we will intervene. The communities have a right and their right must be considered. We would visit Adamawa and come up with a comprehensive report.

“We will recall that we did the first phase of this for the DANARE-BIAJUA axis of Cross River State and as a fall out of that, the Speaker through a request by Dauda Nyampa included this SINA AREA to the Committee’s terms of reference.

“The second aspect of this interactive briefing, which is very critical and crucial is on the role of the military,the para-military and the security agencies towards safeguarding the borders & territorial integrity of nigeria: this briefing is to leverage inputs from the guarantors of our National Security-the Army and the various Security Agencies because in the Committee’s last visit to Cross River state we discovered the lack of Security posts or barracks of any sort along our land borders whereas such is obtained across the Cameroon side of borders, hence, the necessity of this interactive session with our Security formations,” she said.

Director General of the National Boundary Commision, Adamu Adaji, who said the demarcation exercise was being carried out in line with a ruling of the International Court of Justice explained that so far the sub-commission on demarcation has emplaced a total of 2, 214 pillars along the boundary between Nigeria and Cameroon.

The representative of Sina Area, Adamu Kamale, said the disputed area was a Nigerian territory and was never a settlement and that the community was never considered in the entire demarcation process.

” The criteria used for Bakassi is not the same used for Michika local government. In our own case the ruling stated clearly that it is a watershed….and if watershed is to be used, it means any territory that is on the flank to the left as you are coming from Lake Chad falls into Cameroon and any community to the right falls to Nigeria, because both countries had an agreement in the ruling he said”.

Representives of the Nigeria Army, Nigeria Navy, Department of State Services, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps while calling for calm pledged to always protect the territorial integrity of the country.

Oduyemi Odumade, Edited By Grace Namiji