James Achanyi-Fontem
Some Nigerians have declared the independence of Bakassi and named it Delta State. An interim head of state has even been designated. 
According to BBC, the decision of the Nigerians was in support of the petition to the international court of justice attacking the Green tree agreement. When the news was announced by the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, last August 7, it immediately appear ed on the front page of the Nigerian "Punch Newspaper".
The sources say that an armed militant movement of the Delta region of Niger under the supervision of one Tony Ene, known as close collaborator of the Cross River State Governor proclaimed the independence of the state of Bakassi with its motto being "God is our power" .
The source adds that members of the movement occupied the Ekpot Atai on Sunday, August 6 ahead of the declaration. A flag in blue and red carrying ten stars representing the different ethnic groups resident on the peninsula was raised to the sky during the proclamation of independence of the Democratic Republic of Bakassi.
According to the Punch newspaper, the militants of the movement have declared they are going to install their government soon, because their land cannot be handed by Nigeria and the United Nations to another country, without quoting it. Tony Ene auto-proclaimed himself interim head of state.
According to Tony Ene, nothing under the sun can make the people of Bakassi slaves of Cameroon and that the declaration of independence of the Democratic Republic of Bakassi fall within the frame work of article 01 and 55 of the United Nationa charter on the rights to auto-determination of people who can within international legislation rule themselves.
It is the first time that unforseen complications have entered the conflict over Bakassi and this was just a few days before the deadline of the Greentree agreement for Nigerian soldiers to quit the area in conformity with the ruling of the international court of justice last October 10, 2002.
On the other hand, Cameroonian elite of the Bakassi region convened a concertaion meeting in Douala, on Saturday 12th August 2006 on the issue. This is happening at the time Nigeria is withdrawing its troops gradually from non strategic points of the Cameroon-Nigeria frontiers. Before this development, last July 21, a group of chiefs from the Bakassi went to the High Court in Abuja, Nigeria to oppose the Greentree Agreement, signed on the 12th June 2006 between Presidents Paul Biya and Olusegun Obasanjo.
The agreement accorded 90 days for Nigerian soldiers to withdraw from the area. The traditional chiefs qualified the Greentree agreement as illegal and anti-constitutional, because it was not ratified by the federal assembly of Nigeria, as stipulated by article 12 of the Nigerian constitution adopted in 1999.
According to the Nigerian constitution, no part of its territory can be given out without the agreement of the parliament. This event comes to delay a diplomatic decision, which everybody thought had brought a final solution to the Bakassi conflict. From what is happening, another long phase of dialogue has to start while leaders of the concerned parties play the game within the limits of their current mandate.
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