Kula Kingdom Seizes Ibeto’s Crude Oil Vessel, 2 Tugboats Involved in Incident*
Bodies of the two remaining victims of Tuesday’s boat mishap at Robertkiri, along the Kula waterways in Akuku-Toru Local Government Area, have been recovered.
The bodies were recovered on Saturday, four days after the incident which occurred on Tuesday, 20th October, 2026.
They were properly identified as Davies Opiri, Secretary of the Kula Community Development Committee (CDC), and David Sukubo, younger brother of the President of the National Youth Council of Nigeria.
The bodies were found along the creeks and mangroves within the Robertkiri axis by the search and rescue team comprising community leaders, divers, local vigilantes and fishermen.
The corpses were later deposited at a morgue in Port Harcourt after formal identification by the relatives at the Abonnema Divisional Police Headquarters.
It will be recalled that 15 persons on board a speedboat were reportedly drowned when the Ibeto Group was pulling out its 200,000-capacity crude oil vessel named ‘Anambra Basin’ from the Kula coastal waters, having concluded operations in the area amidst unresolved issues with the host communities.
Seven persons lost their lives in the incident, while eight were rescued alive.
In the meantime, the people of Kula Kingdom have seized and taken over the crude oil vessel and two tugboats, named Delta Runner and Laura-V, involved in the incident, while investigation into the matter is ongoing.
The two captains of the tugboats have also been reportedly arrested by the police for investigation.
Speaking shortly after the recovery of the last two bodies, the leader of the search and rescue team, a prominent indigene of Kula, Sukubo Sara-Igbe Sukubo, claimed that the incident was not a boat mishap as widely reported, but a deliberate act of murder allegedly by the Ibeto Group.
He alleged that before the incident, the founder of the Ibeto Group had threatened to crush and kill anyone who attempted to block the waterways to prevent the company from pulling out its vessel from the area.
“Ibeto is the one who masterminded the killing of our youths. This is havoc committed in Kula Kingdom by Ibeto. He has turned women to widows and children to orphans. He has made families lose their breadwinners, husbands, fathers, brothers, uncles, cousins, nephews and loved ones,” he said.
Sukubo Sara-Igbe also threatened to mobilize a mass protest next week with the remains of the victims to the residence and business premises of the Ibeto Group, including its subsidiaries, to demand immediate government action against the owner of the company over the death of the victims.
“I have declared a 21-day protest starting next week with 51,000 youths and caskets bearing the remains of the victims“.
“We shall protest to the residence of Chief Cletus Ibeto in Port Harcourt and shut down all his companies in Rivers State until he is arrested by security agencies and prosecuted for murder.“
“We demand justice for the families of the victims and the affected communities.“
“Ibeto is the murderer. He killed our people. He is the mastermind and prime suspect,” he alleged.
The Ibeto Group had earlier denied direct involvement in the issues which led to the incident at the Robertkiri axis of the Kula waterways.
The company had in a statement said its subsidiary, Max Shipping Services Limited which operates the crude oil vessel was engaged by a hirer, Menal Technical Services Limited under a contractual agreement of crude oil evacuation in the area.
