Gov. Bassey Otu.
By Anietie Akpan
Cross River and Akwa Ibom States are at loggerheads again over the issue of 76 oil wells which was ceded to the later in 2008 by and the the subsequent Supreme Court judgement of 2012.
The State Government in a statement dated July 28, and signed by the Commissioner for Information, Dr. Erasmus Ekpang, said, “the attention of the Cross River State Government (CRSG) has been drawn to a Press Release issued by Uko Udom, SAN, the AttorneyGeneral and Commissioner for Justice of Akwa Ibom State on the 24th July, 2025 wherein several misrepresentations and outright falsehood were made against the Government and the good people of Cross River State”.
Following the ceding of part of Bakassi to Cameroon in 2002 by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), he noted that the judgement was implemented by the Signing of the Green Tree Agreement in 2008 where Nigeria and Cameroon, with the help of the United Nations, set up the structures for the handover of Southern Bakassi Peninsular to Cameroon and initiated the Joint Boundary Demarcation Committee known as the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission with the mandate of mapping out the land and maritime boundary between Nigeria and Cameroon.
While the Committee was yet to commence its work of mapping out the actual boundary line of the territories belonging to Nigeria and Cameroon over Bakassi and Lake Chad, Ekpang said, “the National Boundary Commission and the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission held a retreat in Kano in August 2008 and applied what they called the “Technical Option” as against the “Historic Title Option” earlier used in demarcating the boundary between Cross River and Akwa Ibom States and awarded the 76 oil wells located in western Bakassi to Akwa Ibom State.
“Let it also be noted that Akwa Ibom State in their petition to the National Boundary Commission had prayed for the application of the Historic Title Option in the resolution of her boundary dispute with Rivers State as was the case with her boundary with Cross River State”.
He also stated that while Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Bayelsa States were invited to the retreat held in Kano, Cross River State was not invited because it had no boundary dispute with Akwa Ibom prior to August, 2008.
Notwithstanding the several judgments of the Supreme Court referred to in the Press Release under reference, Ekpang further said, “in March, 2024, the attention of His Excellency, Sen. Prince Bassey Edet Otu, the Governor of Cross River State was drawn to the fact that several oil wells, in OML 114 and 123 Oil fields, were indeed within the Cross River State’s maritime boundary and for which it derived no revenue whatsoever. As a responsible leader,
“His Excellency, Governor Otu engaged the relevant authority, namely the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission on this revelation”.
Upon receipt of Cross River State’s complaint, he said an inter-Agency Committee, comprising of the Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation, National Boundary Commission, Nigeria Upstream Regulatory Commission was constituted with Surveyors- General of Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra , Cross River and other oil producing States as observers to determine the veracity of the Cross River State’s claim.
“In May, 2024 , the Committee carried out its mandate by plotting the Maritime boundary of Cross River State using the Nation’s Administrative Map 11th edition, as well as the 2004 well dichotomy Study Map and thereafter geolocated the oil wells found therein”, he adding that, “at the end of the exercise, 67 oil wells were found to be within the Maritime Boundary of Cross River State.
“It is this uncomfortable truth, that our sister State (Akwa Ibom) seeks to suppress as it lays bare the injustice Cross River State has had to suffer since the decision of the Supreme Court delivered in 2012, which Akwa Ibom State Government now hides behind”.
Ekpang said this Press statement shall serve as the only response by Cross River State as “the Presidency has waded into the matter as it should rightly do and has directed both States to consult widely, hold stakeholder’s engagements and report back. By the posturing of the Attorney General of Akwa Ibom State and the contents of his Press Release, it is abundantly clear that Akwa Ibom State has no interest in the process outlined by the Presidency.
“On the other hand, Cross River State, standing on the biblical injunction that truth crushed to the ground shall surely rise again, remains committed to unearthing the truth and correcting the grave injustice done to her”.
