Coming at a time that the Bayelsa State government is angry with Aiteo oil exploration company, which operates in the Nembe Bassambiri axis of the state, the Opu Nembe people appear to have been ready with their gauntlets in readiness for a fight with the oil firm.
The community appears to be disappointed with Aiteo for what has been perceived to be the company’s cunny posturing, after another spill was reported to have occurred from the company’s facility.
On November 1, 2021, there was a massive oil blow out at Aiteo’s Santa Barbara well 1 in OML 29 in Nembe. It took the company about a month before it was put out, after the community and various stakeholders had cried out to the world.
While the company was yet to recover from the effects of that spill, another blow out was said to have occurred close to the site of the previous spill, the same day Nigeria was celebrating the 65th anniversary of its independence.
The community is not happy with the company for its handling of issues concerning the latest spill, especially as Aiteo did not consider it necessary to inform the community until four clear days after the spill occurred.
The community has already engaged a law firm, to convey its position to the company. In the letter which was jointly signed by Iniruo Wills, Managing Partner and Dr Dickson Omukoro of Ntephe Smith and Wills, and addressed to the HSE Manager, Nembe Eastern Exploration and Production Company Ltd (the new name of Aiteo), Augustine Amaka Bisong, the community regretted the posture of Aiteo on the proposed joint investigation visit as suggested by Aiteo.
The letter reads in part: “We are instructed by our clients to remind you – as you are quite aware of already – that the Community requires and deserves decent notice to assemble a competent JIV team, some of whom usually come from Lagos, Port Harcourt and/or Yenagoa, in order to ensure due diligence and avoid or countervail the perennial practice of manipulating the JIV process and suppressing critical information.”
“Please note that our clients demand a thorough and competent investigation of this spill, and an adequate management (including swift post-spill assessment and remediation).
Beyond this spill, for the records, we demand on behalf of our clients again for a top-level engagement (Company, Community Technical Team, and Regulators) for a lasting overall framework to put a stop to this unbearable and continual burden.”
Aiteo has been in operation in Nembe, Bayelsa State for about 10 years now after it acquired one of the prime onshore assets of Shell Petroleum Development Company Ltd, OML 29, in 2015. Since then, several spills have occurred in the area, crippling the socio-economic lives of the largely fishing settlements in the Nembe area.
Meanwhile, the Opu Nembe Kingdom has warned Aiteo to stop playing games over the court it instituted against the oil firm, as they battle for justice over spills that occurred in 2019 and 2022. The community is accusing Aiteo of unnecessary delay tactics.
In a letter dated October 7, 2025 from the same law firm and addressed to Abdul Mohammed, SAN, and Kayode Olaosebikan of Madyan Legal Consult, they expressed dissatisfaction with Aiteo’s unending requests for adjournment.
They said: “We however express the deep displeasure of our client communities (who have been suffering the burden of your client’s oil spills, including depending on oil-polluted waters for daily needs) at what appears to be a needless protracted delay in conducting this lawsuit, especially in light of the grounds for your last said request for adjournment: appearance of “Learned Senior counsel” in another suit in Abuja and attendance of the New Legal Year at the Supreme Court/swearing in of new Senior Advocates of Nigeria”
“After five years of Aiteo running rings round the regulatory agencies/process to evade liability, our law-abiding clients had to resort to the courts. Another rigmarole to delay this resort to court could cast an impression of a defendant litigant’s cavalier attitude to the judicial process, despite the army of large and powerful law firms at its disposal.”
