Trade and maritime traffic between Cameroon and Nigeria nosedived this week after a Cameroonian state governor ordered a temporary trade ban Wednesday in the Bakassi Peninsula, in response to the abduction of two officials from the area.
Cameroon reports about 35 percent of Nigerian petroleum products and basic commodities imported by Cameroon pass through the peninsula. Nigeria also depends on Bakassi for most of its cocoa and fish imports from Cameroon.
Aboko Patrick, mayor of Kombo Abedimo, a locality in Bakassi, told VOA that several thousand merchants have been unable to transport their goods out of the area since the ban.
“All petroleum products come from Nigeria, even food items come from Nigeria,” he said. “The fish which is caught in our territorial waters is carried to Nigeria. Today those fishermen, those who were doing legal business, are bound to suffer, but if this suffering can lead us to have peace, I think it is better that we go for it."
On Wednesday, Bernard Okalia Bilai, governor of Cameroon's Southwest Region, ordered the suspension of trade and maritime activity with Nigeria in the peninsula because suspected gunmen from Nigeria allegedly abducted Roland Ewane, the division officer (D.O.) of the Idabato district.
"It is well established that the D.O was kidnapped with the complicity of the population of Idabato who are 95% Nigerians who refuse to pay taxes,” Bilai said, adding, “and once the D.O. want(ed) to fight illegal activities and to request the payment of taxes, he (was) attacked, kidnapped and carried to Nigeria. It is well established that he is now in Nigerian territory. They should release the D.O."
Ewane was abducted alongside Ismael Etongo, an Idabato district council staff member, and taken to Nigeria in a speedboat, Bilai said.
Nigeria ceded control of Bakassi to Cameroon in the early 2000s, after a long legal battle in international courts. However, Cameroon has complained that most of the area’s 300,000 inhabitants, most of whom are Nigerians, refuse to pay taxes.
Merchants say Cameroon has deployed troops to enforce tax payments, something that Cameroon officials deny.
Cameroon says it has written to Nigerian authorities to help secure the release of the two abducted officials.
Joseph Vincent Ntuda Ebode, an expert on international security at the University of Yaounde-Soa, told VOA by telephone that it would be helpful if merchants paid taxes to the Cameroonian government.
It is a civic duty for all civilians to pay their taxes, he said, adding that Bakassi needs schools, hospitals, markets and lots of other infrastructure that can be developed with the money.
The trade ban appears to be having an impact, as Nigerian merchants say they have not received goods from Bakassi for the past two days.
Nigeria has not commented on the abductions or the ban on trade.