Francis Wilfred
The Pan Okpe Socio-Political and Cultural group has reacted to a recent statement by Chief Emmanuel Oritsejolomi Uduaghan, the Alema of Warri Kingdom, who alledgedly, claimed that Sapele belongs to the Itsekiri.
A statement signed by Igho Akeregha,
President, Okpe People’s Forum, (OPF)
described the statent as reckless and inflammatory.
Rising from an emergency meeting held in Sapele, Delta State to review the development, the OPF took cognisance of the hollow threat of the said Chief Uduaghan who issued a caveat emptor over the foundation laying ceremony of a new Sub-Palace of the Orodje of Okpe Kingdom in Sapele and threatened that there would be communal violence if the Sub Palace was allowed and the Okpe People’s claim of ownership of Sapele is sustained.
The OPF notes that Chief Uduaghan is not the first Itsekiri to challenge Okpe ownership of Sapele. His forebears who fled from a war extermination and were accommodated by the Okpe in Sapele during the colonial era displayed enormous ingratitude by turning around to challenge their Okpe host to the overlordship of Sapele.
It is historically and legally settled that ownership of Sapele belong to the Okpe people. Several courts of competent jurisdiction, particularly the landmark case of Chief Ayomano & Another v. Ginuwa II (9 WACA 85), laid the matter to rest as the West African Court of Appeal upheld the Okpe people’s ownership of Sapele lands and dismissed claims of Itsekiri overlordship.uThe
The judgment established that the Okpe people were the original settlers on Sapele land and that Itsekiri presence in the town began only after the Nana War of 1894, when displaced Itsekiri groups sought refuge in Sapele with the permission of the Okpe people under customary tenancy arrangements.
Having lost all their cases in court, some Itsekiri have not relented in their veil pursuit of a wild fantasy rooted in non existent title to Sapele. This is the typical character of some prominent Itsekiri who have a well documented notoriety of laying spurious claims to lands belonging to other ethnic groups.
Some neighbours of the Itsekiri like the Urhobo and Ijaw have in the past, been forced to defend themselves against these land-grabbing individuals of Itsekiri stock who have the penchant of imposing war on their neighbours over lands they do not own.
In the instant case, Chief Uduaghan has not hidden his intention to similarly declare war on the Okpe over ownership of Sapele lands.
The said Chief Uduaghan, who neither owns a House in Sapele nor live in the town is threatening communal conflict. His controversial records are in the public domain and we are familiar with his divisive rhetoric. The OPF wish to remind Chief Uduaghan that no single individual or group have the monopoly of violence. We are poised and prepared to deal with his threat howsoever and in whatever form.
The Itsekiri, a minority in Warri and Delta state, and their Olu, should warn his rascally subjects not to provoke the Okpe people. The outcome of any conflict instigated by the Itsekiri against the Okpe will result in unprecedented and unimaginable regret for them.
Chief Uduaghan had the temerity to threaten the revered Monarchy of the Okpe Nation by warning HRM, Felix Mujakperuo, Orhue 1, the Orodje of Okpe Kingdom to stay away from the foundation laying ceremony of the Sub Palace in Sapele which held successfully on January 24, 2026. This, for us, is the red line which Uduaghan and his cohorts have crossed.
As a group, we had expected Chief Uduaghan to stop the ceremony, but neither his shadow nor that of any of his destabilising agent was seen by our vigilant forces.
The OPF states unequivocally, that title to all lands in Sapele is vested in the Sapele Okpe Community Land Trust Association, the statutory body responsible for the management and control of all land on behalf of the indigenous Okpe people.
This is recognised under the Delta State Traditional Rulers, Council and Chiefs Law. The schedule to the law acknowledges Sapele Local Government Area as belonging exclusively to the Okpe people and recognizes only the Orodje of Okpe as the statutory traditional ruler for the area.
From the foregoing, any Itsekiri individual or group who deliberately misrepresents these legal and historical facts to stoke conflict with the Okpe must be reminded that we are hospitable people who want to live in peace but are prepared for war against those who seek to destroy us and seize our lands by force of arms.
The OPF have read some provocative and twisted narratives that the court judgment limited Okpe ownership of Sapele land to 510 acres. Nothing can be farther from the truth as the merchants of this falsehood will stop at nothing to sell half baked information to unsuspecting and gullible individuals with the ultimate objective of grabbing Okpe land through the back door.
We hereby serve this notice to any war mongering individual or ethnic group that the Okpe people stand guard to protect their traditional institutions and ancestral lands and are ready to give peace for peace and war for war.
The Okpe are not cowards. We are Warriors. The statement concluded
