By Samuel Oyadongha
OTUABAGI—BOTH Government and International Oil Companies, IOCs, have abandoned Otuabagi, a rustic agrarian settlement in Ogbia Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, which provided 18 of the 21 Oil Wells used to launch Nigeria into the league of crude oil exporting countries in 1958.
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When NDV visited the community, villagers bitterly complained that government and multinational oil companies dumped the community after exploiting their oil. The town looked desolate, no electricity, potable water and good roads.
Otuabagi does not readily come to mind as Oloibiri, the legendary oil community in the same council area. However, out of the 21 oil wells widely known as “Oloibiri oilfield,” drilled by Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, through which Nigeria exported its first crude, 18 were located in Otuabagi, including the famous Oil Well 1 bored at a depth of 12,008 ft.
Corked oil…
