Returnees from Cameroun still searching for family members

Some of the over 400 Nigerians chased out of Cameroon by the gendarmes two weeks ago are still searching for their family members, with hope of finding them fading by each passing day.

The hasty departure from Cameroon caused some family members to be separated from one other on their way home. Now, some of them could not be traced, a situation that is causing anxiety at the Ikang camp of the returnees in the new Bakassi local government area of Cross River State.

Apart from monetary and material losses, these returnee Nigerians said they had run out of patience in the search for their loved ones just as the Cameroonian authorities are not helping matters with their silence.

Innocent Bassey, spokesman of one of the returnees said in an interview that when they were driven out of Bakassi and other territories now under the sovereignty of Cameroon, some families had their members arrested, while others went into hiding for fear of the unknown.

Mr. Bassey also said that despite making formal complaints to the Republic of Cameroon through its consulate in Calabar on the missing people, no word had come from that country on the safety or otherwise of the missing persons.

Those yet to be located since the departure from Cameroon are over 50, going by the estimate of the returnees. The spokesman maintained that they are disillusioned by the way and manner the gendarmes pushed them out of Cameroon and chased them about in the creeks of Bakassi peninsula like animals.

And following the influx of these returnees to the Ikang camp, Mr. Bassey said facilities there had been overstretched with its attendant health hazards which he feared could cause an epidemic.

Government is concerned

Speaking about the plight of these Nigerians, the South- South Zonal Coordinator, National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA,

Umesi Emenike, assured them of the Federal Government's concern over their plight and also in locating the missing persons.

The NEMA Zonal Coordinator described the plight of the displaced people as pathetic and the height of inhuman treatment from fellow Africans.

Mr. Emenike said the circumstances that led to their leaving the peninsula in a hurry were being addressed by the Federal Government, adding that as an agency urgent efforts were being made to make them comfortable.

The Director General of the emergency agency in Cross River State, Vincent Aquah, reassured the victims of government's total commitment to bringing normalcy to their lives.

Mr. Aquah said that the state government was eager to put smiles on the faces of the returnees and thus give them a sense of belonging as citizens of a caring country.