Itsekiri, Okpe Disagree on Land Scope for Sapele Sub-Palace
FRESH tension is building in Sapele, Delta State, as the Itsekiri and Okpe ethnic nationalities trade words over plans to lay the foundation of an Okpe Sub-Palace in the town.
While the Okpe people insist Sapele is part of their ancestral land, the Itsekiri maintain that any such project must remain within a legally defined portion of land earlier granted to the Okpe.
Itsekiri Cite Court Judgment
Reacting to the development, Chief Emmanuel Tselomi Uduaghan, the Alema of Warri Kingdom, warned that any action outside the 510 acres of land granted to the Okpe in the judgment of Chief Ayomanor v. Ginuwa II (W.A.C.A) could spark fresh unrest.
Uduaghan, who administers several Itsekiri communities in Sapele under the overlordship of Ogiame Atuwatse III, said the court ruling did not confer ownership of Sapele on the Okpe people.
He referenced the 1930 colonial Intelligence Report on the Okpe Sobo Clan, which listed Okpe settlements without mentioning Sapele. According to him, historical records indicate that Sapele forms part of Itsekiri ancestral territory.
He urged all parties to respect the rule of law and avoid actions capable of destabilising the fragile peace in the commercial town.
Okpe Group Counters Claims
However, the Okpe Interest Group (OIG), in a statement signed by Comrade Ejomafume Akpomevine, dismissed the Alema’s position as a distortion of history.
The group maintained that Sapele predates colonial administration as ancestral Okpe land and has never been lawfully ceded. It argued that colonial intelligence reports were administrative documents and not instruments for transferring indigenous ownership.
OIG also pointed to Hole Creek on the Benin River, near the Sapele/Abigborodo bridge, as the long-recognised boundary between Okpe and Itsekiri territories.
Reaffirming the authority of the Orodje of Okpe, whose traditional palace is in Orerokpe, the group described the proposed sub-palace as an internal cultural initiative within Okpe Kingdom.
Both sides have called for restraint, but the disagreement underscores lingering historical and territorial sensitivities in Sapele.
