The Santa Barbra flow station of indigenous oil giant Aiteo in Bayelsa was temporarily shut down for routine maintenance and not by members of the oil firm’s host community, a source at the oilfield has said.

According to the source within OML 29, operated by Aiteo Eastern Exploration Company, the flow station resumed normal operations on March 27, 2019.

“The shutdown had nothing to do with the protest by members of the host community as speculated, and as we speak the flow station is up and running,” the source said.

Spokesman of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta, Major Ibrahim Abdullahi, said in an interview that the joint force had yet to receive any report that the flow station was shut by the community.

“I have no information on the shutdown of any facility by host community, I have not been buried, but I will verify from our troops and get back to you,” Abdullahi said.