The Akwa Ibom State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Uko Udom, has dismissed reports suggesting that 76 oil wells legally handed to the state through the judgement of the Supreme Court may be returned to Cross River State, describing the claims as speculative and misleading.
Media reports had indicated that the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) was considering re-listing Cross River as an oil-producing state after receiving the final report of the federal government’s inter-agency committee on oil-producing states.
The committee was tasked with scientifically determining the precise location of oil and gas assets within Nigeria’s onshore and offshore boundaries.
However, speaking during a media briefing at the Government House on Monday, Udom clarified that what the commission received on February 13, 2026, was only a draft report, not a final decision, approved recommendation, or directive reallocating oil wells.
“We consider it necessary to restate the facts clearly and authoritatively in order to prevent misinformation and deliberate distortion of constitutional realities,” Udom said.
He stressed that the RMAFC itself had publicly confirmed that the document in circulation was merely a draft and did not reflect any final position.
According to him, claims that oil wells may be “returned” to Cross River are speculative and not grounded in law.
Udom, who anchored his position on two decisive rulings of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, recalled that the apex court had dismissed Cross River’s claim over the estuarine southern territory where the oil wells are located.
The court held that the October 10, 2002, judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the land and maritime boundary between Nigeria and Cameroon fundamentally altered Cross River’s coastal status, effectively stripping it of a seaward boundary.
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Further litigation initiated by Cross River State seeking clarification on offshore entitlements was also resolved in Akwa Ibom’s favour.
On July 10, 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that Cross River was no longer a littoral state entitled to offshore derivation and that its claims were legally unsustainable, fully affirming Akwa Ibom’s entitlement to the disputed oil wells.
Udom emphasized that no inter-agency committee, technical panel, or administrative body has the authority to overturn or reinterpret a subsisting judgment of the Supreme Court.
“Any action inconsistent with a valid and subsisting judgment of the Supreme Court would be unconstitutional, null, and void,” he stated.
The Akwa Ibom State government, he concluded, remains confident that the existing legal position is clear and binding, and that no oil wells have been ceded or reassigned.
