The Federal High Court, Abuja, has delivered a judgement on Monday in which ruled that Bayelsa State should give up the procession of the Soku oil field in favour of Rivers State. This judgment was delivered in the suit filed by Rivers States for an order of mandamus seeking to compel the NBC to correct the error in its 11th Edition of Administrative Map that gave the location of the disputed oil fields to Bayelsa State.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, in his judgment, stated that the court was satisfied that the oil field rightfully belonged to Rivers State and gave directives to the National Boundary Commission, NBC, to rectify an error in its 11th Edition of Administrative Map, in which San Bartholomew River was in 2002, designated as the boundary between Rivers and Bayelsa States, instead of River Santa Barbara.
According to Vanguard reports, Justice Ekwo ordered the commission to promptly produce the 12th edition of the Administrative Map and restore River Santa Barbara as the inter-state boundary between the two states, as it was in 1996 when Bayelsa State was carved from Rivers State.
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The court also ruled that NBC is obligated to comply with a 2012 judgement of the Supreme Court which affirmed River Santa Barbara as the boundary between both states, by correcting its self-admitted error of designating River San Bartholomew as the boundary.