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Following the alarm raised by the Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, over the ongoing boundary adjustment from Borno to Cross River States, Senate President, David Mark, yesterday warned against any further attempt by Cameroun to deprive Nigeria of the ownership of any part of its territory. He said the adjustment, if carried through, would result in the loss of more Nigerian communities to Cameroun.
This came as the Senate yesterday suspended its plan to vote on the fresh amendment proposals to Section 9 of the constitution which would allow the draft of a new constitution to be subjected to referendum by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
While announcing the suspension of planned voting on the referendum, Mark said the matter had to be deferred to another legislative day because the parliament did not have the required four-fifth majority required to vote on the matter.
Ndoma-Egba, who raised the alarm through Order 42 of the Senate Standing Rules, was granted leave by Mark to formally move a motion on the matter on another legislative day, as the parliament proceeded on the end of its third session break yesterday. It will resume on June 24.
Order 42 allows a senator to raise a matter he considers to be of urgent importance on the floor of the Senate before the commencement of the day’s proceedings and if supported by one-fifth of senators present, the senator shall formally move a motion on the matter on another legislative day.
According to Ndoma-Egba, who represents Cross River Central senatorial district, the ongoing boundary adjustment has created considerable anxiety among his constituents whom he said were concerned that they might lose their communities to Cameroun in the same manner Bakassi was lost to the neighbouring country through Green Trade Agreement (GTA) in 2008.
He said: “The exercise going on in my constituency is causing a lot of anxiety among my constituents. They fear that at the end of the exercise, we will be losing not just communities but a number of many communities to Cameroon. So with your kind permission, I will like to bring a formal motion on this on our next legislative day (which is June 24)."
After agreeing to allow him move the motion on another legislative day, Mark warned anyone dreaming of further invasion into Nigeria's territory to perish the thought, saying Nigeria would never give away the smallest portion of its land again, irrespective of the status of organisations behind it.
“This country must never, never under any circumstance surrender one millimeter of our land to any country irrespective of who is supervising it, whether it is the United Nations (UN), or African Union (AU). This is serious enough. The matter will be discussed in our next legislative day,” Mark said.
Answering questions from journalists after the sitting, Ndoma-Egba said he had been told that the adjustment was currently going on in Danari community in Boki Local Government Area of Cross River State in further pursuit of the GTA.
He added that residents of this community now lived in perpetual fear of possibly losing their land.
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