The long running dispute over oil wells in the Niger Delta has gained renewed attention following fresh recommendations by a panel elished by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission. The report has revived the debate between Cross River State and Akwa Ibom State over the ownership of several oil wells located near the Bakassi region.
For Governor Bassey Otu the issue represents more than a technical dispute. He describes it as a long standing struggle for justice following the loss of the Bakassi Peninsula.
The controversy dates back to 2002 when Nigeria ceded the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon after a ruling by the International Court of Justice. In the boundary adjustments that followed 76 oil wells were transferred to Akwa Ibom State leaving Cross River without any oil wells.
The dispute later went before the Supreme Court of Nigeria which ruled in 2012 that the oil wells belonged to Akwa Ibom State. Although the judgment appeared to settle the matter legally Cross River State has continued to challenge the outcome claiming that the ruling was based on incorrect information.
The debate has now been revived by a January 2026 report from the Inter Agency Technical Committee which verified more than one thousand oil and gas wells across the country. The committee included representatives from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, the National Boundary Commission and the Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation.
According to the report Rivers State has 195 oil wells while Delta State has 171 and Imo State has 169. Ondo State has 138 wells while both Cross River and Akwa Ibom were recorded with 119 each. Bayelsa State has 92 wells while Edo State and Anambra State have 29 and 25 respectively.
The committee also recommended that Nigeria review its maritime boundary maps and address lingering boundary disputes affecting revenue sharing among oil producing states.
During a recent field visit near the Bakassi Peninsula Governor Otu led stakeholders and journalists on a boat trip to demonstrate what he described as inaccuracies in the earlier boundary delineation.
According to him the navigational access to the area runs through Cross River territory and the state should not be considered landlocked. He insisted that geographic coordinates and historical evidence support the state’s claim to the disputed oil wells.
Otu argued that the Supreme Court ruling relied on misleading information and said the state hopes the judgment could eventually be reviewed.
He also rejected claims that Akwa Ibom shares a direct maritime boundary with Cameroon stating that the state lies about 25 nautical miles away from the disputed zone.
Beyond the legal and geographic arguments the governor said the issue has economic implications for Nigeria as a whole warning that valuable oil resources may not be properly accounted for.
For Cross River State the fight over the oil wells may have begun decades ago but the latest technical findings and renewed political pressure suggest the dispute is far from settled.
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