President Muhammadu Buhari belongs to all Nigerians and not just the All Progressives Congress (APC) and as such the Bakassi people would continue to seek his assistance in properly resetting them, a former Presidential Adviser on National Assembly Matters, Chief Florence Ita-Giwa, has said.

She was reacting to a statement by the Special Assistant to the President on Prosecution, Chief Okoi Obono-Obla who had criticised Ita Giwa for urging Buhari that as he is rebuilding the North East, he should remember the Bakassi people who have been displaced for the past 11 years.

The statement reads in part :”As a nationalist and mother of the nation, I will continue to agitate for my people. The Bakassi struggle should not be politicised because President Buhari is a father to us all.

“Meanwhile, Obono Obla is a man I have tremendous respect for and I urge him and other Nigerians to go back and read my statement. I wrote that President Buhari is a man of the people and as such prevailed on him to help my people because the suffering is too much. How does that amount to insult or hypocrisy?

“I want to remind my fellow Cross Riverian that If he has observed well, I am not actively involved in politics for now but my preoccupation remains the Bakassi issue and I will never stop agitating or fighting their course because it was out of a violence free agitation that the late Sani Abacha created the Bakassi Local Government that we are laying claim to today.

“Now that we have Obono Oblak in the Presidency, I urge him to start his activism over there and join us in calling on the President to resettle Bakassi people. I am not unaware that the PDP administration couldn’t resettle the people but being a man of honour that feels the pulse of the common man, we are convinced that President Buhari would come to our aid as soon as possible.”

Ita Giwa added that it was a democratic era and that opposing views should be accommodated as long as they are constructive.

She added: “My position still remains that we are not seeking the revisit of the ICJ judgement because it will be an exercise in futility. I don’t want Buhari to waste time and scarce resources in the name of diplomacy but to resettle us in our choice locations in Dayspring Island where we were registered and voted.”