The Cross River State Government has said that it is in the process of recovering the 76 oil wells that it lost to Akwa Ibom State.
The state Governor, Bassey Otu, made this disclosure during a media conference he addressed in Calabar on Tuesday.
The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that Cross River State lost 76 oil wells to Akwa Ibom State in 2012 following a Supreme Court judgment.
During the judgement, Justice Olufunlola Adekeye, who read the lead judgment, which was unanimous, dismissed the appeal by Cross River State against the Court of Appeal ruling ceding the oil wells to Akwa Ibom State.
Adekeye said that the appeal lacked in substance and merit, insisting that the agreement, which initially gave the state rights to the 76 oil wells, was upturned by the handing over of Bakassi to Cameroon.
He held: “The facts before the court do not support the claim of the plaintiff to being a littoral state.
“A non-littoral state cannot claim oil wells offshore as she has no maritime territory.
“The plaintiff has no maritime territory since the cessation of Bakassi Peninsula and the Cross River estuary which used to be part of the state prior to August 2008.
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“The present position of the plaintiff cannot be blamed on any government agency particularly the National Boundary Commission and the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission.”
Otu, however, said that he had taken up the fight to recover what rightfully belonged to the state with the knowledge that the disputed oil wells were wrongly ceded to Akwa Ibom State.
He said: “I am happy to let you know that even though we have not received any money from the wells, Akwa Ibom is also not getting anything for now from it.
“While a decision is yet to be made on where the wells rightfully belonged, the proceeds from it are being kept in escrow account by the authority.”
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