Bayelsa State is created in the oil-producing Niger Delta

In October 1996, General Sani Abacha's military government announced the creation of six new states, including Bayelsa State carved out of Rivers State. Bayelsa was formed from three local government areas—Brass, Sagbama, and Yenagoa—with Yenagoa designated as the capital. The new state encompassed the heartland of Ijaw territory in the Niger Delta, bringing together communities that had long shared cultural ties and similar experiences with oil extraction on their lands.

The creation of Bayelsa responded to decades of agitation by Ijaw communities who felt marginalized despite living atop Nigeria's most valuable oil reserves. Since the 1960s oil boom, Ijaw leaders had complained that oil wealth extracted from their territory benefited other regions while local communities faced environmental degradation and poverty. The demand for a separate state intensified during the 1990s as Niger Delta activism grew, with groups like the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People highlighting the region's grievances on the international stage.