From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
The Bayelsa State Government has kicked against the decision to exclude it from the Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) of the Nembe oil spill.
The state government’s reservation was aftermath the probe into the cause and volume of spill from the leak at Oil Mining Lease (OML), 29 suffered a setback following the exclusion of the Bayelsa Technical Committee on the spill set up by the Bayelsa State Government.
According to investigations, the Bayelsa Committee had protested the exclusion of the media from the JIV.
Findings indicated that there was disagreement between officials of Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production, operators of the OML 29, and the Bayelsa team over the inclusion of the media in the JIV.
It was gathered that Aiteo had opposed the inclusion of media in the investigation but the Bayelsa Technical Committee insisted that inclusion of the press was needed to ensure transparency.
As it became clear that Aiteo was not willing to shift ground, representatives of Bayelsa Ministry of Environment and Bayelsa Government Technical Committee boycotted the JIV.
Aiteo was said to have insisted on its position noting that the JIV was constituted of representatives of oil firms, regulators, State Ministry of Environment and impacted communities.
They maintained that they were not opposed to the participation of the State Technical Committee but the inclusion of media was not allowed in the statute books that listed the statutory members.
Reacting to the development, Kemasuode Wodu, SAN, the legal team lead of the Bayelsa Government, described the exclusion of the press as unacceptable as the Bayelsa government urged the committee to ensure transparency.
‘The Bayelsa government team on the JIV was barred by Aiteo and armed security deployed to the oilfields, so when they insisted that we drop our press crew, we became apprehensive of their motives and even our safety.
‘So we are not aware if they went ahead or not but we were emphatic that the state government wants investigations to be conducted in a very transparent manner,’ he said.