Abuja — The Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has commenced a fresh technical review of the long-standing dispute over 76 offshore oil wells claimed by both Cross River and Akwa Ibom states, following renewed petitions and heightened public interest around the matter NEGROIDHAVEN can report.
The review is being carried out by the RMAFC-led Federal Government Inter-Agency Technical Committee on Disputed/New Oil Wells, with participation from key institutions including the National Boundary Commission (NBC), the Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation (OSGOF), and other relevant regulatory and technical bodies.
The committee’s mandate, according to officials familiar with the process, is to undertake a fact-based, scientific and technical determination of the actual locations of the disputed oil wells, using verifiable coordinates, hydrographic data and maritime boundary principles, in line with existing laws and past judicial pronouncements.
The renewed review comes amid recent proceedings and hearings in Abuja that drew strong representations from both states. Akwa Ibom indigenes staged a protest at the venue of the committee’s sitting, warning against any action they believe could undermine their current derivation status from the oil wells. Prominent legal practitioners, senior government officials and technocrats from Akwa Ibom state were present at the session to articulate the state’s position.
On the other hand, Cross River state has maintained that the attribution of the 76 oil wells since 2012 was based on administrative assumptions rather than scientific verification. The state has repeatedly argued that the Supreme Court judgment delivered that year did not expressly award the oil wells to Akwa Ibom but rather struck out Cross River’s appeal and left the matter of oil well attribution to constitutionally designated federal agencies for technical determination.
Recent submissions by Cross River to the Federal Government and the inter-agency committee reportedly include extensive geological, hydrographic, maritime and coordinate-based data intended to support its claim of continued estuarine and littoral access through the Cross River Estuary.
The dispute dates back to the aftermath of the 2002 International Court of Justice (ICJ) judgment on the Bakassi Peninsula, which altered Nigeria’s coastal configuration in the affected area and triggered competing interpretations of offshore boundary entitlements between the two states.
Meanwhile, the National Boundary Commission has, in recent official publications and workshops, continued to list Cross River state among Nigeria’s coastal states, citing its estuarine interface with the Atlantic Ocean. These classifications have further fueled calls for a comprehensive technical reassessment of the oil wells’ locations.
Officials involved in the current review have stressed that the process is ongoing and that no final determination has been made. They emphasized that the outcome will be guided strictly by empirical data, established boundary laws and inter-agency consensus, rather than political pressure or public demonstrations.
As the review progresses, stakeholders across both states have been urged to allow the committee to complete its work, with assurances that any eventual decision will follow due process and aim to resolve the dispute in a manner consistent with Nigeria’s legal and constitutional framework.
