The Cross River Government said that it is in the process of recovering the 76 oil wells that the state lost to Akwa Ibom through a judgment by Supreme Court.
The Cross River Governor Bassey Otu stated this during a media conference in Calabar on Tuesday.
This follows Supreme Court judgement handing over 76 oil wells initially belonging to Cross River to Akwa Ibom in 2012.
Straightnews gathers that the Supreme Court can overrule its own decisions by distinguishing the current case from the earlier case. It can also declare a case as decided per incuriam, which means it was decided based on its peculiar facts.
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Recall that during the 2012 judgement, Justice Olufunlola Adekeye, who read the lead judgment, which was unanimous, dismissed the appeal by Cross River against the Appeal Court 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.
“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.
“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 (RMAFC),” Adekeye had stated.
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.
“I am happy to let us know that even though we have not received anything money from the wells, Akwa Ibom is also not getting anything for now from it.
While decision is yet to be made on where the wells rightfully belonged, the proceeds from it is being kept in escrow account by the authority,” he explained.
Supreme Court cedes 76 oil wells to Akwa Ibom
The Supreme Court on Tuesday, July 10, 2012 conferred on Akwa Ibom State, the ownership of the 76 oil wells along the Atlantic Ocean, ruling that Cross River State has lost its claim to being a littoral state.
The Court, in its judgment on the matter, said that Cross River became a non-littoral state since 2002, when Bakassi Peninsula was handed over to Cameroun by the International Court of Justice, ICJ.
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The 76 oil wells had before the judgment of the International Court of in Justice in Hague belonged to Bakassi Local Government Area of Cross River state.
The seven justices of the court headed by the outgone Chief Justice of Nigeria, Dahiru Musdapher, in their ruling, submitted that the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMFAC) was right in attributing the oil wells to Akwa Ibom at the inter-agencies meeting.
Before delivering the lead judgment Justice Olufunlola Adekeye dismissed Cross River’s application, pointing out that the agreement which initially gave the state rights to the 76 oil wells was frustrated by the handing over of Bakassi to Cameroon.
Mrs Adekeye held that the 13 per cent derivation revenue on the 76 oil wells between Akwa Ibom state and Cross River State must continue to be attributed to the state that has the maritime territory.
“Cross River State no longer has any maritime boundary,” she said.
“It is landlocked. The plaintiff not being a littoral state and not having a maritime boundary, the 76 oil wells, which are the subject matter of the suit, which lie offshore and within a maritime territory, cannot be attributed to it.
“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. The present position of the plaintiff cannot be blamed on any government agency, particularly the National Boundary Commission and the RMAFC. The two statutory bodies must perform their statutory duties based on facts and realities to compile the indices for the payment of the derivation revenues to entitled states,” she said.
Mrs. Adekeye said the court could not close its eyes to the existing situation, which made Cross River to continue to enjoy the benefits and privileges of a littoral state when it was no longer one by virtue of subsequent legal changes. She added that it cannot be misled into giving a legislative judgment because of the influx of refugees from Bakassi into Cross River State.
“The government of Nigeria has a means of providing for the social needs of the people of Cross River State faced with the social problems thrusted on the state due to the cessation of Bakassi Peninsula to the Cameroon,” she said, adding that the state government should explore ways of getting the Federal Government to take care of the social needs of the people of the area.
Cross Rivers state government had dragged the Federal Government and the Akwa Ibom state to court on grounds that some of the oil wells ceded to her by virtue of the agreement reached at a meeting called by the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, in 2006, were not released.
The Cross River government had through it counsel, Yusuf Ali, approached the Supreme Court and asked it to compel both the Federal Government and the Akwa Ibom government to respect the sharing formula put in place by the former President Obasanjo, through a letter dated October 31, 2006, had unilaterally shared them between the two states, giving 76 wells to Akwa Ibom and 14 to Cross River.
In his submission, counsel to Akwa Ibom state government, Bayo Ojo submitted that the issue before the court was whether Cross River is a littoral state or not as at present, arguing that the handing over of the western Bakassi to Cameroun in August 14, 2008 had made the state lose her status as a littoral state, and therefore cannot benefit from the oil wells.
“By the virtue of the handing over of that part of Cross River to Cameroun, the state cannot claim tbe a beneficiary of any oil well,” Mr. Ojo said.
