Date Published: 06/10/09

Right Group wants Cross River oil producing status restored

HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA, HURIWA, a development focused and Democracy inclined Non-Governmental Organization has Yesterday strongly urged President Umaru Musa Yar’adua to order the National Boundary Commission [NBC] and the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission [RMAFC] to immediately restore the 67 oil wells ceded to Akwa Ibom from Cross River State in controversial and unconstitutional circumstances and to return Cross River State immediately as an Oil producing State for the sake of social justice, transparency and the respect for the rule of law.

Specifically, the Cross River State House of Assembly had in a resolution early this Month called on the Federal Government to compensate Cross River State for its loss of the oil rich Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon following the World Court judgment and the controversial and illegal ceding of Cross Rivers 67 oil wells to its sister Akwa Ibom State by the Nigeria’s National Boundary Commission [NBC] even as it also advocated the restoration of Cross River State’s oil producing status by the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation, Fiscal Commission. The Cross River State House of Assembly which condemned the injustice meted out to their State urged the Federal Government to compensate the State in perpetuity since the ceding of the oil rich Bakassi peninsula was done in the corporate interest of Nigeria but it completely rejected the ceding of the 67 oil wells to Akwa Ibom State.

The Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, which issued the media statement after its four member delegation led by its National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko paid a three days working and assessment visits to Cross River and Akwa Ibom States called on the Federal Government to reverse the controversial decision of the National Boundary Commission to cede 67 oil wells from Cross River to Akwa Ibom state in circumstances that clearly violates the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria because the Boundary Commission assumed the power of the Court of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in fragrant violation of section 6 of the 1999 constitution by backing its illegal decision to cede those oil wells from their original owners which is Cross River State to Akwa Ibom citing a non-existing Judgement of the nation’s apex Court- The Supreme Court of Nigeria. The group said it was probing the remote circumstances that led to the decision by the National Boundary Commission to cede those 67 oil wells to establish if it could petition the necessary anti-graft agencies to wade into the matter.

HURIWA stated that since the National Boundary Commission took the unpopular decision to cede the 67 oil wells from Cross River to Akwa Ibom based on the misunderstanding of the verdict of the Supreme Court of Nigeria on the Onshore/Offshore oil resource control matter that was instituted by the immediate past regime, the most logical and legal panacea is to immediately reverse that unpopular decision and for the Federal Government to immediately restore the Oil producing status of Cross River State. The Human Rights body further called on the Federal Government to order the payment of all outstanding oil derivation allocations that was denied Cross River State by the Revenue Mobilization, Fiscal and Allocation Commission as a result of the mistake of the National Boundary Commission in ceding 67 oil wells from Cross River to Akwa Ibom State.

The Rights Group stated; ‘’We recently visited the two States and our findings show that the decision to cede the 67 oil wells was done in bad faith and most people spoken to by our group in the two States wonder why such a crisis could be engineered by a Federal agency funded by the tax payers. Most people we spoke with in the two States that we visited last week condemned the decision of the National Boundary Commission and urged the Federal Government to reverse the illegal decision for the sake of the longstanding peace that has existed between the two States. Since the voice of the people is the voice of God, we urge the Federal Government to immediately order the restoration of the oil producing status of Cross River State by giving the State back its 67 oil wells mistakenly taken away’’.