The battle over ownership of the oil-rich Stubbs Creek Forest Reserve in Akwa Ibom State is far from over, as the Ibeno Elders Council has accused the Ekid people of Esit Eket Local Government Area of attempting to rewrite history through propaganda rather than law to claim control of the reserve.
The Ekid people have maintained control over the reserve for decades, citing the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council ruling of 1918 to support their claim.
They also submitted documents showing that the 1998 compensation confirmed their ownership of the Stubbs Creek Forest Reserve.
However, the State Government, through the Commissioner for Justice, Uko Udom SAN, has disputed the Ekid claim, insisting that the historic case of Ntiaro and Ikpak v. Ibok Etok Akpan and Edoho Ekid, decided by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 1918, did not vest ownership of the Stubbs Creek land in any ethnic group or community.
The commissioner further clarified that the Stubbs Creek land was subsequently lawfully constituted as a forest reserve by the Colonial Government of Nigeria under Forest Reserve Order No. 45 of 1930, with amendments in 1941, 1955, and 1962. He noted that upon its reservation, principal rights over the land were forfeited to the government, which has since administered the area according to applicable laws.
Speaking to newsmen on Sunday in Uyo, the Spokesman of the Ibeno Elders Council, Barrister Diamond Akpanika, described Eket’s renewed claims over the reserve as “a calculated abuse of history, law and public intelligence.”
According to him, Eket’s sudden reliance on Esit Eket as the basis for its claim exposes years of contradiction and opportunism.
“For decades, Eket treated Esit Eket with open disdain, dismissing it as irrelevant to its identity and aspirations.
“Today, driven by desperation and greed, Eket has suddenly ‘rediscovered’ Esit Eket and is parading it as a legal crutch in a claim that has no foundation whatsoever,” Akpanika said.
He stated unequivocally that Eket Local Government Area does not own any portion of the Stubbs Creek Forest Reserve, stressing that the matter is already settled by official survey plans, ordinances, and historical records.
“This is not a matter of opinion or debate. Eket has no land in the Stubbs Creek Forest Reserve, not one inch. The facts are fixed, documented, and stubborn. They do not bend to manufactured narratives,” he declared.
Akpanika explained that the only land marginally linked to Esit Eket within the reserve was a limited acquisition around Ntak Inyang, which he described as insignificant both geographically and legally.
“To inflate that negligible footprint into ownership of the Stubbs Creek Forest Reserve is intellectual dishonesty of the highest order,” he said, adding that the overwhelming portion of the reserve lies within Ibeno land, a fact acknowledged long before the present controversy.
He also criticised Eket’s argument that “whatever belongs to Edor belongs to Eket”, calling it a “legal monstrosity” unsupported by the Constitution, history, or morality.
“Communal identity cannot be stretched like rubber to swallow territories that never belonged to Eket.
“The Stubbs Creek Forest Reserve Survey Plan exposes this argument as a crude land grab masquerading as historical reasoning,” Akpanika argued.
On claims relating to compensation allegedly paid to Edor, the Ibeno Elders Council spokesman clarified that compensation does not translate to ownership.
“Similar compensation was paid to Ibeno communities, yet no one pretends that compensation transferred ownership to Eket.
“More importantly, the Mobil QIT expansion took place on Ibeno land, deliberately and lawfully,” he said.
Akpanika recalled that in 1999, following a lawful excision from the reserve, the Akwa Ibom State Government under former Governor Victor Attah issued two Certificates of Occupancy to Mkpanak in Ibeno, describing the action as a clear recognition of ownership.
“That was not a clerical error. It was a lawful and deliberate act grounded in ownership reality.
“That single fact alone collapses Eket’s entire alleged ownership propaganda and narrative,” he said.
He further cited colonial records showing royalty payments made to Ibeno communities as far back as the 1940s, noting that these documents remain verifiable.
“These records explain Eket’s frantic search for counter-documents that simply do not exist.
“History did not favour Eket then, and revisionism will not change that now,” he added.
Akpanika pointed out that the Stubbs Creek Forest Reserve Ordinance, marked by about 110 beacon stones, clearly shows that nearly 70 percent of the reserve lies within Ibeno territory.
“Beacons do not lie. Coordinates do not lie. Maps do not lie. Only people do,” he said.
