President of the Forum, High Chief Dr Henry Onwe, made the call on Sunday, September 27, 2026, after an Independence Day Thanksgiving service at the Christian Central Chapel International Faith Mansion World Centre in Calabar.
By Emmanuel Archibong
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Published on September 28, 2026
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3 min read
The Cross River State Businessmen’s Forum (CRBF) has called for the restoration of the state’s 76 disputed oil wells, insisting that Cross River remains a littoral state with access to the Atlantic Ocean.
President of the Forum, High Chief Dr Henry Onwe, made the call on Sunday, September 27, 2026, after an Independence Day Thanksgiving service at the Christian Central Chapel International Faith Mansion World Centre in Calabar.
Onwe was speaking ahead of Nigeria’s 66th Independence Anniversary on Thursday, October 1, 2026.
He congratulated Nigerians on the anniversary and said the country’s journey since independence in 1960 had demonstrated resilience despite the challenges encountered over the years.
The CRBF president urged Nigerians to sustain the spirit of resilience, enterprise, commitment and hope for a better country.
The thanksgiving service was also held against the backdrop of renewed debate over Cross River’s littoral status and its long-running dispute over offshore oil wells.
Onwe rejected the description of Cross River as a landlocked or non-littoral state attributed to Senate President Godswill Akpabio, insisting that the state remains a littoral territory with access to the Atlantic Ocean.
The position comes as the state’s claim over the disputed oil wells is undergoing renewed technical scrutiny. The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) recently reopened the verification of disputed and newly drilled oil and gas wells and constituted a reconstituted Inter-Agency Technical Committee to determine their precise locations.
The dispute dates back to the consequences of the 2002 International Court of Justice judgment on the Nigeria-Cameroon boundary and subsequent legal proceedings concerning Cross River’s maritime status and derivation revenue.
The Supreme Court in 2012 held that derivation from the disputed offshore wells should be attributed to the state whose maritime territory contained the wells, while Cross River has continued to challenge the administrative and technical basis for its exclusion.
Cross River has subsequently presented new scientific, geological and boundary evidence in support of its claim. The state government said previous technical exercises identified oil wells within what it considers its maritime territory, while Akwa Ibom State has maintained that its ownership of the 76 wells is established by existing Supreme Court judgments.
Onwe also commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Cross River Governor Bassey Otu for efforts towards resolving the oil wells issue, saying restoration of the resources would strengthen the state’s economy.
He said the return of the oil wells and associated revenue would provide additional resources for economic development in Cross River.
The businessman, who also serves as Project Coordinator of the Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP) in Cross River State, further endorsed Governor Otu for a second term in office.
He commended the governor’s financial management, particularly what he described as efforts to reduce the state’s domestic debt.
The Cross River State Businessmen’s Forum is an association of business leaders and entrepreneurs operating in the state and in the diaspora.
