Nigeria promises to hand over Bakassi to Cameroon as scheduled

August 10, 2008 - 0:0
LAGOS (Xinhua) -- Barely a week to Aug. 14, scheduled for the handover of oil-rich Bakassi to Cameroon by Nigeria, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Michael Aondoakaa (SAN) has said the Nigerian Federal Government will not rescind its decision.      The minister said this on a program monitored on Africa Independent Television on Thursday.      He said that Nigeria had submitted to the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice as a third party and she must therefore, uphold the judgment of the ICJ.      He said, ""The handover will proceed as scheduled in compliance with the judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).""      ""The reason is that we had submitted to the jurisdiction of the ICJ as a third party. And the moment you submit to the jurisdiction of ICJ as a third party, you are bound by its Article 94 and the jurisdiction excludes any other,"" he said.      ""So, we voluntarily submitted to the content of the matter ' jurisdiction' as established in the Charter of ICJ 1965. And do not forget, we are a member state of the United Nations,"" the minister said.