Sapele Land Ownership: Okpe Forum Urges Olu To Warns His Subjects Against Provoking Okpe People
LAGOS FEBRUARY 4TH (URHOBOTODAY)-A Pan Okpe Socio-Political and Cultural group under the aegis of Okpe People’s Forum, OPF has appealed to Itsekiri Monarch, His Majesty Ogiame Atuwatse to warn his r subjects not to provoke the Okpe people hence the outcome of any conflict instigated by the Itsekiri against the Okpe will result in unprecedented and unimaginable regret for them.
The Group in a statement signed by Igho Akeregha, President, Okpe People’s Forum, OPF recalled that their attention has been drawn to a recent reckless and inflammatory statement by one Chief Emmanuel Oritsejolomi Uduaghan, the Alema of Warri Kingdom, who claimed that Sapele, the ancestral land of the Okpe People also belongs to the Itsekiri.
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 of 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.
“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 foundation laying ceremony, but neither his shadow nor that of any of his destabilising agent was seen by our vigilant forces,” the statemet disclosed.
“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 a 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 is aware of 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 read.
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