Oloibiri Oil Well: Court Rules in Favour of Otuabagi Community

Olusegun Samuel in Yenagoa

An Ogbia High Court sitting in Yenagoa has ruled that Otuabagi community is the host to the first oil well, where the resource was discovered in commercial quantities in Nigeria.

Presiding Judge, Justice Simon Amaduobogha, who entered the terms of settlement reached by parties following mediation by the Ijaw National Congress (INC) as consent Judgement also ruled that Oloibiri Museum and Research Centre be sited in Otuabagi – the birthplace where crude oil was first discovered in 1956.
The suit was marked OHC/10/2021 and instituted by Oloibiri Community against the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bayelsa State Government, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Otuabagi, Otuogidi and Opume communities.

The court further ordered the Oloibiri community to desist from demanding a relocation of the Museum and Research Centre Project or any part thereof since the earmarked project can only be sited where artefacts such as the first oil well are located.
The development has laid to rest an age-long contradiction over the rightful owner of the land where oil was first discovered in commercial quantity and quality in Otuabagi Community in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State of Nigeria in 1956.

The famed Oloibiri Oil field was made up of 21-Oil wells discovered and named sequentially, starting with the first discovery on the 15 of January 1956 in Otuabagi, in the then Oloibiri District, Brass Division, in pre-independence Nigeria.

In 2021, the federal government approved the siting of the Museum and Research Centre project in Otuabagi, Otuogidi and Opume, at a cost of N117 billion, and is being developed by the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), NCDMB and SPDC.

The project was to commence immediately since last year, but was stalled by litigations from the various communities around Ogbia Local Government Area, over who should be the original host community of the multi-billion research centre.