Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi has accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of taking oil wells belonging to Cross River State during his tenure as governor of Akwa Ibom State, challenging Cross River residents to demand an explanation from the Senate President.
Amaechi made the allegation on Monday, October 12, 2026, during a town hall meeting in Calabar organised to mobilise support ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) chieftain said his criticism of Akpabio was not motivated by party differences, but by what he described as the Senate President’s knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the disputed oil wells.
“I am not calling Akpabio out because he is in the APC. I am calling him out because he knows that I know what he did. Tell him Amaechi says Akpabio knows what he did,” he said.
Amaechi urged Cross River residents to seek answers from Akpabio over the alleged transfer of the state’s oil wells to neighbouring Akwa Ibom.
He also alleged that Akpabio had attempted to claim oil wells belonging to Rivers State but was challenged in court. The claims were not independently established in the reports reviewed, and Akpabio’s response to the latest allegation was not included in the reports.
The controversy centres on a longstanding dispute over offshore oil wells between Cross River and Akwa Ibom. In July 2012, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Akwa Ibom in a dispute involving 76 oil wells, holding that Cross River had lost its littoral status following the transfer of the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon.
The ruling followed the International Court of Justice’s 2002 judgment on the Bakassi Peninsula dispute between Nigeria and Cameroon. The resulting boundary changes became central to the disagreement over which state was entitled to the revenue associated with the offshore oil wells.
The issue has resurfaced in 2026 amid renewed debate over the allocation of oil revenues and claims that the wells could be returned to Cross River. Akwa Ibom officials have maintained that the Supreme Court judgments remain binding and that no oil wells have been ceded to Cross River.
At the Calabar meeting, Amaechi also criticised the Federal Government’s infrastructure priorities, questioning the decision to pursue the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway while a proposed coastal railway linking Lagos and Calabar had not been completed.
The former minister of transportation said the railway project, which was also expected to include a spur to Obudu Cattle Ranch, was estimated to cost $11 billion during his tenure, but the government lacked the funds to execute it.
He questioned the Tinubu administration’s decision to proceed with a coastal road project estimated at $16 billion, arguing that the government should carefully assess its infrastructure priorities.
Neither the longstanding oil-well dispute nor Amaechi’s latest accusation has changed the legal position established by the Supreme Court’s 2012 judgment. Any claim that the oil wells were improperly transferred must be distinguished from the court’s ruling on ownership.
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