11-06-08 A Federal High Court sitting in Benin City, Edo State nullified the ceding of Ugbede community land in Warri North of Delta State to Ondo State, declaring the ceding of the land and about 260 oil wells as null, illegal and unconstitutional. Justice Nnamadi, in his judgement in the suit brought by Ugbede community, challenging the transfer of their land to Ondo State, upheld the argument of the plaintiffs.
The matter dragged on for long on the strength of the different applications and objections raised by Ondo State, challenging the suit.

Ondo State had in its preliminary objection, contended, amongst others, that the plaintiffs lacked the locus standi to bring the action. It also argued that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the matter and that the suit disclosed no reasonable cause of action against the respondents.
But the court agreed to take the objection alongside the substantive suit. The plaintiffs, meanwhile, prayed the court to discountenance the contention of OndoState and grant their requests.

The plaintiffs in the substantive suit had asked the court to determine, whether their land could be ceded to another state without complying with section 8(2) of the 1999 constitution, which provides:
"An Act of the National Assembly for the purpose of boundary adjustment of any existing state shall only be passed,
(a) a request for the boundary adjustment, supported by two-third majority of members (representing the area demanding and the area affected by the boundary adjustment) in each of the following, namely:
(i) the Senate and the House of Representatives;
(ii) the House of Assembly in respect of the area; and
(iii) the local government council in respect of the area."

The plaintiffs had also argued that they never wanted or agreed to cede their land to Ondo State, as such, the Delta State government and the Edo State government could unilaterally cede the land to Ondo. The court in its judgement granted the prayers of the plaintiffs.
Counsel to the plaintiffs, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), who spoke after the judgement, commended same, adding, "in spite of the preliminary objection brought to delay the matter, the court graciously decided to hear the objection with the substantive matter and held that the respondents did not comply with the provision of section 8(2) in ceding Ugbebe land to Ondo State."

On the implication of the judgement, he said: "The land of my clients will be returned to them, because the purported ceding was not constitutional in the first place. Ondo State will not have to pay Delta State all the money they have collected from the oil wells in the community, which runs into billions of naira. If they want to cede Ugbebe land to Ondo State, they have to follow the constitution and I am certain that Ondo will never get the land because my clients have said that they are not interested in joining Ondo State, because with the illegal ceding, we had a situation where the same people were overnight split into two different states."
"They got away with it during Obasanjo's regime by trying to steal some part of Delta State and they thought they could get away with it forever, because he (Obasanjo) was then in power, but the court did not allow the illegality to stand," he added.