Biafra League bans oil drilling in Bakassi Peninsula

A separatist group operating in the Bakassi Peninsula and the Gulf of Guinea territorial waters, Biafra Nations League (BnL), after a meeting in Idabato subdivision of Bakassi Peninsula, issued a ban on oil drilling by oil companies, including business activities by traders, in the Peninsula pending agreements on the demands of the Biafra agitators.

BnL Operational coordinator, Henry Edet, declaring the ban, gave all the stakeholders in oil drilling and marketing two weeks to comply with the terms and conditions given by the BnL or shutdown operation completely in the Gulf of Guinea.

Edet emphasised that the BnL resolved to shutdown operations in the Peninsula, including international oil trade in the Bakassi and Gulf of Guinea water ways because the oil dealers are paying taxes to the governments of Nigeria and Cameroon.

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The BnL Coordinator protested that the owners of the land are not benefiting anything from the drilling of oil and the international trade in the territorial waters within the territory. Edet threatened that the Idabato high sea will be completely blocked by the BnL militia.

The Biafra Nations League had earlier demanded urgent pull out of troops by the governments of Nigeria and Cameroon from the Bakassi Peninsula and its environs.

The League warned that “the group will not tolerate the presence of armed securities in the Peninsula,” mandating that “both Nigeria and Cameroon should withdraw their troops completely from the Peninsula.”

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Henry Edet had declared: “BnL isn’t going to tolerate any armed forces in our territory.

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“Bakassi is our national headquarters, and we are completely in charge.

“Any external body still having their forces here will be dealt with.”

Edet was silent on the recent bombings and exchange of fireworks between BnL militant groups – the Black Marine, Dragon Marine – and the Joint Border Forces in the Gulf of Guinea.

The Black Marine were in recent times reported to have killed about two soldiers of the Cameroonian military in a speed boat attack.
The Army of Cameroon had also gone on manhunt for the militants in the Cameroon side of the border communities in the Bakassi Peninsula.