NIWA Petitioned Over Deadly Night Operations By SEEPCO Vessels

A Warri-based lawyer, Owen Nanakumoh, Thursday, on behalf of the people of Egrangbene Federated Communities in Burutu Local Government Area, Delta State, petitioned the Area Manager of the Nigeria Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Delta State, Nigeria, over the alleged night sail operations of big vessels belonging to Sterling Oil Exploration & Energy Production Company Limited (SEEPCO) within the Ramos River in their communities.

The legal practitioner, in the petition, said the operations by the oil firm’s big vessels have caused a series of accidents, hazards, near hazards and several inhuman experiences.

He noted that the people of Egrangbene, Abadarama, Ekumugbene, Ekogbene, Ebeberegbene, Egolegbene, Ayama, Kantele/Odisgbene, Youmugbene, Etorozibagbene, Dambodou-Ama, Torou-Egrangbene, Tamorekogbene, Gesiam, Tarekiri, Ayalogbene, Daufakere-Oba, Tama-Egrangbene, Dwamatibo, Ebikemegbene, Ebilade, and Beinmou-Ama, which make up the Egrangbene Federated Communities, have been helpless, malnourished, and bereft of their livelihoods due to the night sails of SEEPCO’s vessels.

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Owen claimed that pregnant women, children, and men and women who are mainly fishers at night are going through serious life challenges, including the loss of children, miscarriages, and the destruction of fishing nets, traps, and canoes, recorded on a weekly basis, as a result of several accidents caused by the night sails of SEEPCO vessels.

Owen stressed that most of the hazards are often recorded during the rainy season at night, night dews, fogs, and harmattan due to the narrow nature of the Ramos River.

He added that buildings and jetties have been severely destroyed because some of the vessels have run into the communities.

Owen said all entreaties to make SEEPCO disembark or stop the “nefarious” and “unscrupulous” activities of night sail have only met with serious maltreatment against the people of Egrangbene Federated Communities, pointing out that SEEPCO security men acted on the orders of its Management.

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Owen also said SEEPCO’s attention to the prohibition of night sails by the Nigeria Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) Act and several Federal Government Gazettes was further resisted or ignored with impunity.

“In the light of the above, amongst others, our client embarked upon an inevitable civil protest on the 22nd of March, 2025, against SEEPCO’s vessels, which later resulted in the invitation of both parties to the Joint Task Force (JTF) office, South-South Operations Delta Safe, Igbogene, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. In the meeting, SEEPCO justified their night operation on the premise that your good office had given them the grant to sail, notwithstanding the EXTANT NIWA Act and Federal Government Gazettes against night sails.

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“However, our clients believe not this claim, where SEEPCO can be above the law, thereby putting the citizens of Nigeria into this grave danger of death, hunger, hardship, and inhuman experiences.

“It is for the reason of the above, SEEPCO’s flagrant disobedience to the laws of the land, whereby our clients and their families’ lives no longer count, their means of livelihood matter not, and their properties are destroyed on a daily basis with reckless abandon, that this petition has become necessary.”