Nigeria rejects world court ruling

Border disputes can hinder oil developments

Nigeria says it will refuse to hand over the disputed oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon, as ordered by the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Transport Minister Ojo Maduekwe read out Nigeria's first reaction to the 10 October ruling after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

For Nigeria, it is not a matter of oil or natural resources

Transport Minister Ojo Maduekwe

Nigeria also appeals to United Nation secretary general Kofi Annan to intervene in the dispute, Mr Maduekwe said.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo had earlier promised to respect the ruling after a meeting with Mr Annan and his Cameroonian counterpart, Paul Biya.

A spokesman for the world court said it had received no representations from Nigeria, but pointed out that its judgements were binding and not subject to appeal.

The two countries have clashed several times over the peninsula and Cameroon referred the dispute to The Hague in 1994.

Secession

The court ruling was based on colonial treaties between former rulers Britain, Germany and France.

But the ruling ignored the rights of traditional kings and chiefs as the true owners of the land, Mr Maduekwe said.

"On no account will Nigeria abandon her people and their interests. For Nigeria, it is not a matter of oil or natural resources on land or in coastal waters, it is a matter of the welfare and the well-being of her people on their land," Mr Maduekwe said.

The ethnic Efik fishing community living on the peninsula, regards itself as part of the Calabar kingdom of south-eastern Nigeria and has rejected the ruling.

Last week, some Bakassi leaders threatened to secede from Nigeria if the government handed the territory over to Cameroon.

"We will not hesitate to pull out of Nigeria and seek self-determination if Nigeria allows our lands to be taken away from us," the region's senator, Florence Ita-Giwa, told the French news agency, AFP.

The Bakassi peninsula is in itself a swampy strip of land with little value, but its ownership has implications for fishing and oil rights offshore.