Court Orders Bayelsa To Forfeit Oil Wells To Rivers

The Bayelsa state government was on Monday, December 16 ordered by the Federal High Court in Abuja to forfeit Soku oil field to Rivers, which has been proven as the rightful owner.

Justice Inyang Ekwo, ruling in favour of Rivers state, ordered National Boundary Commission (NBC) to correct the error which is contained in its 11th edition of Administrative Map which designated San Bartholomew River as the boundary between the two states, instead of River Santa Barbara, Channels TV reports.

The presiding judge ordered the NBC to, with immediate effect, publish the 12th edition of the map and in it reflect River Santa Barbara as the boundary between both states just as it was in 1996 when Bayelsa was created from Rivers.

The court ruled that the commission has no other choice than to obey the 2012 verdict of the Supreme Court which at the time upheld River Santa Barbara as the officially recognised boundary between the states.

Justice Ekwo directed that the ruling be served on statutory bodies like the revenue mobilisation allocation and fiscal commission and the office of Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) for the computing of the amount of oil revenue accruable to it with the transfer of the Soku oil field to Rivers.