The Caribbean country’s government is to petition her Majesty for billions of pounds of compensation but critics say British taxpayers have already paid to free slaves.

Merchants made a fortune as slave traders in Jamaica after it became a British Colony in 1707. Many Jamaicans are descendants of slaves who suffered under the oppressive regime. The country gained independence from the UK in 1962 but has kept the Queen as head of state.

And now Jamaica wants compensation as the country’s Culture Minister announced the move to its House of Representatives.

Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange said “We are especially pleased to announce that we have made further steps in our strides towards seeking reparatory justice for the victims and descendants of the transatlantic slave trade. The petition is to be presented to the Queen of the UK and or the government of the UK. The Attorney General’s chambers would need to weigh up the merits of the petition in the eventuality of the government of Jamaica’s involvement in the petition and that it would be the responsibility of the Attorney General’s chambers to file the petition on behalf of the people of Jamaica”

David Cameron faced calls to pay billions of pounds in slavery reparations when he visited the former colony in 2015. That year, taxpayers finally paid off debt from compensating slave owners when the practice was abolished in 1833.

Thomas Mace-Archer-Mills, historian and founder of the British Monarchists Society, said: “Britain has already paid its share and then some – the price of freedom for Jamaica’s slaves. There needs to come a day where individuals, peoples, and the nations of today need to take accountability for themselves, their own actions, and situations, and stop blaming centuries-old dead people and less savoury histories of the past. Britain through the slave acts of the 1800s actually went into debt buying the freedom of slaves throughout the empire. At the time, the British government paid 20 million pounds, the equivalent of around 17 billion pounds today – to compensate slave owners for the lost capital associated with freeing slaves. This pay-out was a massive 40% of the government’s budget and required many bonds to slave owners to effectuate the law”

More than 20,000 people signed an online petition calling on the UK government to compensate “all Caribbean & African Descendants” last December.

Cameron claimed some British troops spotted the location of the abducted Chibok girls and offered to help in rescuing them but Jonathan refused.

But the former President has put out a statement denying it. Reacting to the former Prime Minister’s claim, Jonathan in a statement released by his media aide, Ikechukwu Eze, said Cameron was a liar.

He said “I read the comments by former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, in his new book, For the Record, in which he accused me and the Nigerian Government, which I headed, of corruption and rejecting the help of the British Government in rescuing the Chibok Girls, who were kidnapped on April 14, 2014. It is quite sad that Mr. Cameron would say this because nothing of such ever occurred. As President of Nigeria, I not only wrote letters to then Prime Minister David Cameron, I also wrote to the then US President, Barrack Obama, and the then French President, François Hollande, as well as the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appealing to them for help in rescuing the Chibok Girls. How could I write to appeal for help and then reject the very thing I appealed for? Also, history contradicts Mr. Cameron. On March 8, 2012, when the same Boko Haram linked terrorists abducted a British expatriate named Chris McManus, along with an Italian hostage Franco Lamolinara, in Sokoto, I, as Nigerian President, personally authorised a rescue effort by members of the British military Special Boat Service supported by officers and men of the Nigerian Army, to free the abducted men. So, having set a precedent like that, why would I reject British help in rescuing the Chibok Girls, if it was offered? I also authorised the secret deployment of troops from the United Kingdom, the United States and Israel as a result of the Chibok incident, so how Mr. Cameron could say this with a straight face beats me. I would urge the public to take Mr. Cameron’s accusations with a grain of salt. I will not be the first person to accuse him of lying on account of this book, and with the reactions in the UK so far, I definitely will not be the last. Moreover, on March 8, 2017, the British Government of former Prime Minister, Theresa May, in a widely circulated press statement, debunked this allegation and said there was no truth in it after Mr. Cameron had made similar statements to the Observer of the UK. In his book, Mr. Cameron failed to mention that I wrote him requesting his help on Chibok. Why did he suppress that information? I remind him that copies of that letter exist at the State Houses in Nigeria and London. He never called me on the phone to offer any help. On the contrary, I am the one that reached out to him”.