From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
A landmark judgment by the Ogbia High Court, sitting in Yenagoa, has ruled that Otuabagi community in Ogbia Local Government Area is the host to first oil well, discovered in commercial quantities in Nigeria in 1956.
The judgment has altered history books, records and researchers which had long recognised Oloibiri as the site of Nigeria’s first oil well.
Presiding Judge, Simon Amaduobogha, who entered the terms of settlement reached by parties following mediation by the Ijaw National Congress (INC), as consent judgment, also ruled that Oloibiri Museum and Research Centre be sited in Otuabagi, birthplace where crude oil was first discovered in commercial quantities in 1956.
The court, in the suit 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, 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.
Given that the judgment cannot be appealed against, the development has laid to rest the age-long contradiction over the rightful owner of the land where oil was first discovered in commercial quantity 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. The wells were 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.
Consequently, Otuabagi hosted Wells: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21. Otuogidi hosted Well 6 and 12, and Opume hosted Well 4. Sadly, the Oloibiri community had no oil well to its name.
In 2021, the Federal Government approved the siting of the Museum and Research Centre project in Otuabagi, Otuogidi and Opume – Landlords of the Oloibiri Field at a cost of N117 billion being developed by the Petroleum Technology Development Fund, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board. Other partners are Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, and the Bayelsa State.