Nigeria has resolved her maritime boundary demarcations and disputes with all her neighbours and would thus have a smooth sail in her quest to claim additional 150 nautical miles in addition to the existing 200 nautical miles continental shelf, Director General of the National Boundary Commission (NBC), Alhaji Sadiq Marafa Diggi has said.

Speaking yesterday in Abuja at a press conference, Diggi announced that Nigeria has submitted her claim to the United Nations (UN) for the continental shelf extension last week Thursday.

"We have resolved our maritime boundaries with our neighbours, Cameroun, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome & Principe and Benin Republic. We are close to concluding that of Ghana," Diggi said.

He said, "The Nigeria's Extended Continental Shelf Project was started in 2000 with the aim of submitting Nigeria's claim to the United Nations for the extension of our continental shelf beyond the present Exclusive Economic Zone (200 nautical miles), in accordance with the guidelines set by Article 76 of the United nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of 1982.

Director of Maritime Boundary at the commission, Surveyor Aliyu Umar said at the briefing that Nigeria has spent about 10 million dollars on the project. He said lack of fund prevented Nigeria from becoming the first African country to make submission to the UN, Diggi said that Nigeria is the fifth after Ghana, Namibia, Kenya and Seychelles to submit similar bid.

"We have met with our neighbours of Benin, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana and Togo in Ghana under the auspices of ECOWAS and the Norwegian Government, where we agreed that none of these countries will object to the submission of the others. With this, I would like to make it known to you that with the capable hands available on this Project, we are very optimistic that the Sub-Commission will find it very easy to make a positive recommendation for the submission of Nigeria," Diggi said.