The Cross River State Businessmen’s Forum has rejected the reported description of Cross River State as a landlocked state by the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, insisting that the state remains a littoral state with access to the Atlantic Ocean.
The Forum, which comprises businessmen and traders in the state and the diaspora, said Akpabio’s position was “geographically inaccurate and economically dangerous”, particularly amid renewed efforts by the state to establish its claim to offshore oil resources and associated derivation revenue.
In a statement issued in Calabar on Friday and signed by its President, High Chief Dr Henry Onwe, the group said the Senate President should allow relevant federal agencies to determine the matter on the basis of scientific, geographical and legal evidence.
The Forum said, “Cross River State is without equivocation a littoral state and not landlocked,” arguing that the state’s maritime connection could not be determined by political considerations.
According to the group, the presence of the Eastern Naval Command of the Nigerian Navy in Calabar was one of several indicators of the state’s longstanding strategic maritime importance.
It also cited the Cross River estuary and the state’s proposed Bakassi Deep Seaport, saying recent hydrographic and geophysical studies had strengthened its argument for recognition of the state’s maritime status.
The group further claimed that technical mapping associated with the Bakassi Deep Seaport project had identified oil wellheads within what it described as Cross River’s territorial coastal boundaries.
The Forum said the development had made it necessary for federal authorities to undertake a fresh, evidence-based assessment of the state’s littoral claim.
It also challenged the interpretation of the 2012 Supreme Court judgment which rejected Cross River’s claim to derivation from 76 offshore oil wells following the transfer of the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon.
The businessmen argued that the judgment dealt with an administrative and legal dispute over oil wells and should not be interpreted as having physically removed Cross River’s connection to the sea.
The Forum said ongoing technical assessments by relevant federal institutions, including the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), should be allowed to run their course.
It alleged that Akpabio’s reported comments could prejudice those processes and urged the Senate President to “steer clear of regional politics” in the interest of fairness.
“As leaders of the organised private sector and stakeholders in the economic wellbeing of Cross River State, we refuse to accept such monumental falsehoods from the nation’s Senate President, who ought to have spoken based on facts and neutrality and not be blinded by politics and primordial sentiments,” the statement said.
The Forum maintained that the question of Cross River’s littoral status should be settled through certified federal records, geographical data, hydrographic surveys and applicable law.
It called on the media, investors and other stakeholders to examine the available scientific and official records rather than rely solely on political statements.
The controversy is the latest development in Cross River’s longstanding dispute over its maritime status and offshore oil wells following the International Court of Justice judgment on the Nigeria-Cameroon boundary and the subsequent handover of the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon.
Cross River has continued to pursue renewed recognition of its maritime status and claims relating to offshore oil resources, while the legal and administrative implications of the earlier boundary decisions remain central to the debate.