The Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday ordered the transfer of Soku oil field from Bayelsa State to its rightful owner , Rivers State .
Delivering judgment in a suit instituted by Rivers State , Justice Inyang Ekwo, ordered the National Boundary Commission to rectify the error in its 11 th edition of Administrative Map , which designated San Bartholomew River as the boundary between the two states , instead of River Santa Barbara .
The error was said to have surfaced in the 11 th edition of Administrative Map produced by the NBC in 2002 .
The NBC was said to have in its letter dated July 3 , 2002 in response to Rivers State Government’ s protest admitted its mistake and promised to rectify it in the 12 th edition of the administrative map .
Failure of the NBC to rectify the mistake as promised made the Rivers State Government to file a suit against the Attorney- General of Bayelsa State and the Attorney- General of the Federation before the Supreme Court in 2009 .
The Supreme Court in 2012 ruled in favour of Rivers State and ordered the rectification of the error
By August 2019 , when the mistake had yet to be corrected, Rivers State Government instituted a suit before the Federal High Court in Abuja solely against the NBC, seeking an order of mandamus compelling it to correct its error.
Granting the plaintiff ’ s prayers in his judgment delivered on Monday , Justice Ekwo ordered the commission to immediately produce the 12 th edition of the Administrative Map restoring River Santa Barbara as the inter – state boundary between Rivers and Bayelsa States , as it was in 1996 when Bayelsa State was carved from Rivers State.
He added that the commission was duty – bound to obey the July 10 , 2012 judgment of the Supreme Court which had affirmed River Santa Barbara as the boundary between the states , by immediately correcting its self -admitted error of designating River San Bartholomew as the boundary .
He also ordered that the judgment be served on the relevant statutory bodies , especially , the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission and the office of the Accountant- General of the Federation for them to immediate recompute the amount of oil revenue accruable to it with the transfer of the Soku oil field to it.
More details later …
(PUNCH)