Answer: Oghara people are Urhobo people speaking ethnic people and we have a very eminable history of Urhobo people, we are the gateway from Edo into Urhobo axis, we pass through Edo down here and history has it too that we came from Agbara people and migrated down here so hundreds of years back, we are basically farmers and with time Oghara people have grown depth into other areas of life as growth come about, we have industrial sector up that develop started with timber, after farming we have timber, timber exploration was very very prominent in some years back and with the advert of political governor of Delta State and that upturn the developmental explosion of Oghara, new roads were made and this attracted more development, we are blessed with the river ethiope that open into the ocean and we had a special asset in that area in the sconce that we can take chives into our territory and that has open way for vessel that bring fuel, diesel into our territory and that lead to the advance of tank farms in the territory and with these tank farms development has come up too and with its own challenges too anyway and today we have several tank farms in Oghara and before then, we have territory institutions that sprung up too, we have the teaching hospital, we have the university, we have a polythenic these are in addition to governmental basic banking institution, that are also well establish here, Oghara today has become commercial city so to say, and you can get so many things here, before now we had a fishing trawler company but is gone down the drain these are part of the developmental stages we had in Oghara and like I have told you the timber company has also disappear because of the visitude of time and this is basically because the economy of Nigeria has gravitated from timber into petroleum, now petroleum is now the intake, but in the past timber use to be the major export of Nigeria and Oghara played prominent role in the export of timber through the Sapele river, we have a ship that comes from there, as development as necessity things have change Oghara people have become very very enlighten, many of them are now graduate, in the past we can count many of them that are graduate in those days but with the development many of our children have gone to school we have so many well educated people, we have professors, we have all the field, and they are all prominent in the field, we have accountancy, engineering, we are happy as a kingdom for having share of this type of profession, we are blessed so to say if you look at our history, we have the fist king, but due to political interruption.
The first king who was irroginated first rule for many years but there was interruption that we didn’t have king for a long while until the 19th century another king came which is Orike first, Orike rule then we have Orike Second rule and today we are having Orike third which is myself and I thank God there has been peace in the kingdom, and we enjoy good relationship from all visitors who have come here because Oghara is a community that is open to everybody strangers come and we welcome strangers we do not discriminate we believe that Nigeria as a whole we are all brothers and sisters. If you want to set up industry here in Oghara we welcome you we make things very easy for people and that is why you see so many firms own by foreigners they are here, this goes to tell you that we have a robust mind to attract investors. So if you want to come and invest in Oghara be rest assured that is a peaceful environment where your investment will strive that is a not shell of what we have in Oghara.
Answer: Yes, like every kingdom and community there is a basic way people govern themselves apart from political structure and government where we have local government, now our presidential system local government and state government and the federal, Oghara like every other community and kingdom have their own structure and governance at the peak of governance is the king and Oghara has two sub clans in the other words we have two sub clan as merge together to form a kingdom, we have Oghareki sub clan and Ogharafe sub clan, this come together to form Oghara kingdom and just to tell you how this sub clan play their role we now institute past king I told you of Orefe and Orike and that is how the kingdom is made up of two sub clan we have Orike clan and Orefe clan the two comes together and the kingship rotates between Orike and Orefe, when is I the time of Orefe they produce a king and that king rule for life and then the next time Orike will come, so when Orike rule for its life time the next one will come Orefe that is how they do rachion the king of this kingdom, the king of this kingdom, haven’t said about the king we have a second in command to the king whom we call Iyasere, the Iyasere is next to the king, after the king you come to the Iyasere and the way the Iyasere is selected in the kingdom is such that when a king comes from Orefe’s ruling house, the Iyasere comes from Oreke ruling house and vice visa that is how it is now the two people are in front and the next enchallot traditional rulers are the sub clan, you have the Unugbrogodo of Ogharefe, and Unugbrogodo of Ogharaki these are the line of authority after the king and the Iyasere, we have Unugbrogodo of Ogharaki and after him we have lefternath whom we call Uweworos, the Uweworos are next to the Unugbrogodo we also have the very important person who stands to bless the sub clan whom we call the Igbe, the oldest man, he wills a very important role and influence, they respect him, he is taken as somebody who comes to Ogbedio and also have a role to play he blesses, in most cases his function is to bless people, at times he is called to do certain function depends on how intelligence this Igbe is, because with age memory fail people, so you cannot impose more confident on many Igbe because most Igbe are old but they have important roles to play because they see them as the father and they bless the kingdom, so after Igbe we also have other high chief, chief who become senior chef according to when they took the chieftaincy, the earlier you take you chieftaincy, the senior you become, apart from the chief we also have the Olotus and the Otota, these are the people who work behind the chief to make sure things move well, security wise, administrative wise we use them to settle certain issue in the economy in the kingdom, they have special role to play at times, we send them message, errand when we have some challenges we send the Otota and Olotu on errands, after the Olotus, we have the general people we call Eweya and the Igele these are other general people with that we have an occasion we have roles assigned to these people and the two sub clans they have what we call Ogwejor, Ogwejor is the traditional house near when they carry out procedures of the economy every 8 days, every 8 days they hold the Ogwejor and through development this two Ogwejor are brought together by taking head chief and some other chief they come together and every once in month they come to the palace to deliberate on the welfare of the kingdom, any challenges any good things how we do it, the two Ogwejors representative comes to the palace and that is how we discuss issues pertaining to the kingdom and that is how we tackle problems and move on somehow our administrative system is very sound and may be working perfectly.
Answer: You will note that in Urhobo, Urhbobo is a tribe that have multiple kingdoms and historically they are brought together through the UPU (Urhobo Progressive Union) that has been a formal umbrella whereby all Urhobos kingdom come under unity, the Urhobo people are united under the Urhobo progressive union and every kingdom in Urhobo is a a member of the UPU and of course the kings are part and parcel of the Urhobo Progress Union in their own wisdom, they oversee the UPU, the president general reports to the council of Urhobo traditional rulers and the way the UPU work is this they have their own members elected in the general election and they have council representative they take people from the various kingdom into the union, a key person of UPU is the president general of the each kingdom, each kingdom of Urhobo president general is a member of Urhobo Progression Union, and the function of the president general of the kingdom is to reason with the UPU and the kingdom, where they are information it flows from the UPU through the president general of each kingdom to the kingdoms. The president general report directly to the king where there is anything that needs action, the president general when he comes back from UPU he comes to the king we discuss it, if it has to boil down to the council of chivies we do it, so in other words the president general of each kingdom is a special link between each kingdom and the Urhobo Progressive Union (UPU) is a body supervising the whole Urhobo nation that is the function of the president general.
Answer: Oghara Kingdom is made up of several communities, but somehow we have ruling houses which we look unto as quarters that you see as unit in the kingdom, we have two sub clans Orike, Orefe and each of them has a number of ruling houses, Orefe has 5 ruling houses while Orike has 2 ruling houses and administratively at times they look unto all these ruling houses for administrative purpose, like for Orefe that has their function according to the ruling houses. I know in Orike too also have division into 6 and 5, 11 communities they have 11 set up under the two ruling houses but Orefe they keep their 5 and they didn’t have division into other portion but Oreke the two ruling houses are further divided into 5 division and it is working for everybody perfectly.
Answer: We have 2 major festival apart from the one we hold every 25 years in the two sub clan we have the first one is Isigire, Isigire is the lighter one Olel I mean, Olel comes in after Olel we have Iyirin, these two communities celebrated it different, and at times people come from one sub community to celebrate and the other one go to this one traditionally Ogharafe celebrates their festival before Ogharaki and when it is the time for Ogharafe to celebrate people come from Ogharaki and that is how they do it vice versa and is always a wonderful occasion, the especially is done in December and is a very important event in this kingdom, and we celebrate in pedantries every year, the celebration involve the way to appease the the gods bring peace, cleanse every bad omen things that have happened in the past we pray for it to go off and we come to new year that we ask for peace and progress from god, that is it to ask for peace and cleanse every area in our community prayer for good things to come that is the aim of the festival.
Answer: History has it that they have a group of people that founded this kingdom I don’t want to misquote myself but the things are there documented, so if you want the history, you can get the history there are some contentions in it but I don’t want to go into that, people started from Ogharaki area and migrated to Ogharafe that is the history we have.
Answer: Yes, like in every other community we have challenges of criminals, in the past I know is not my own, we have a number of criminals coming to perpetuate all sort of rubbing, kidnapping in Oghara but today the action taken by the traditional council in collaboration with the police, army we have been able to reduce this crime apart from crime, we have challenges in developmental area, our son tried for us but subsequent government we ask to improve the road, because some of the road done in the time of our son Ibori we needed more road because in the road of a kingdom they need to grade more access road, recently the Oghara traditional council in its own wisdom got to open areas and grade the road for them, they have the resources to grade this road so we will be looking forward to government to grade this road which we have taken pain to mark out by our own effort. Education wise we need people to give our children scholarship we are trying our own best to do the scholarship of a thing but you know we can never have, and most our children ae now enlighten and they go to school they need school fees, we are doing our own best but we need more people to give our children scholarship so that they can get more. Medically, we have medical institution going on very well we are blessed with two hospitals here but as you know medical challenges is a thing, we are trying are own best to the this scholarship of a thing but you know we can never have enough, we have challenges of people who go to school we are doing our little best, but we need more people to give our children scholarship. We need more people government to try and help us and give people free medical, the income in this Nigeria is very low so we need government to assist us medically and equip this hospital because the hospital serves the whole of Delta state and the competition is there is not only for Oghara so everybody has access to the teaching hospital so to say, since we have teaching hospital we need government so that we who is hosting the hospital will have a benefit they have told you the school we have here we need people to patronize the university. It is a private university, admission has been a challenge to them there are so many private university everywhere but this one is unique in itself because it is well establish and the courses are core courses and the school fees is cheap so we want people to come to the school so that the more student we have in the school the better it is for us and we also want the government, like our town farm here is serving so many people and most cases these trailers always spoil the road, I will be very happy if the government can help us reconstruct this road, the road was build by us on our own effort we are also use in developing, and this tarvas serve so many places the whole Delta state and beyond, we have been very careful to take of the tarvas so that it doesn’t and we been having training with our people so that and the company are also doing their own, because been a bonatile area we do our best to safeguard the community which is very very important.
Answer: Yes in the past the two Ogadion before we have king, they are the people that take care of the land, our system is communal land in the sce nce that land belongs to the community if anybody or foreigners comes to take the land he wants to take it for a while, the time of your expiry the thing reverse back to the community, we have major land own by community and land owned by individual, when we started the whole land belong was invested in Ogwejor like I said but today most of the land has been acquired by individual and the government has also acquire portion of it, but we still have land own by the community and by recently we are trying to change this system so that there will be good control over this land, recently some people sold our land without thorough approval of the paper of the community, it was a very big problem to the point that we have to sanction some of these people who sold this our land and we are trying to put in place there will be control of land both by the king and by the Ogbejor, the land resolution taken for Ogharafe before any land the king must be aware of it. So that you can have a safeguard Ogharaki was doing it before when we have a king that came from Ogharaki but now it is now our next traditional council that all land should have a better control after the Ogbejor has sold it you must bring it to the king for final signature, some how the Ogbejor control the, system unlike before they live the king out, but there are lands belonging to individuals, those lands belonging to the individuals are given to them by individual sells land to company there is a way the land tenure system that once a company comes in, the company will compensate the primary owner but then the Ogbejor or the king will still have their own control, in the scence that they pay royalty to the Ogbejor and the kingdom, so that is he new development, the tenure system is very very nice and the Ogbejors and the king is coming together to protect this land from being death with by illegal people selling it without the knowledge of the kingdom.
Answer: Yes we have some tourist area our river bank is a very special area where you can have warm water and clean water in the past when European where here they go to our river bank enjoy good swimming and the potential of our river is till there today it is a special area where you have clean water and you can also move from there to other bank and the other bank you have special highland at the other side of it, the highland is open for visitors to come and see and there are special mango trees that grows on it and there some special monkeys you can find in those area, so in the past you can find in those area, so in the past you can cross to the other bank of the river which contains the highland, so these are potential areas which our traditional council would want to develop, infact we had a meeting on how we can develop the potentials of the tourism in that highland is a potential of development apart from our river bank that is very clean so these are areas we hope to develop in the future.
Answer: You know when we started this interview I said we are basically farmers, we farm cassava, yam, these are the main food we produce here but with time school came up and we now have educated people, how we also have many industries growing up in this kingdom, we have oil palm, rubbers, timber so apart from food crops of cassava and yam we have oil many of our people also produce palm, also have rubber, infact we have a rubber factory behind the palace here in those days our children go there to tap rubber very early in the morning you see them earlier as 5.00am they are already out to tap rubber, we use to collect these rubber we use to have rubber factories apart from this one we have other rubber factories but they have now given way to the tarva, so basically our main stay infact have been rubber palm oil produce processes, and we also produce what we call palm wine, our people go to produce palm wine we enjoy the palm wine, in those days when you go to the shop you see where they sell palm wine, it is one of the delicacies you enjoy when you come to Oghara palm wine is one of the things we produce.
Answer: Like in every other place related people should not marry, even if you are first cousin you should not marry that is it, but our marriage tradition is that a man and a wife we are not engage in two men marriage is a taboo here, so we only marry a man and a woman, that is our marriage culture here, modern culture where do all this one are big taboos here and of curse related people don’t marry, we don’t discriminate people who come to take our daughters, if our daughter likes a man from anywhere it is allowed even if it is European, we are open to marry so also our men, we encourage them to marry but we are happier when our children marry themselves because it preserves the culture and tradition and our marriage is very easy it is what a small token, what is important is that each of them should like themselves. We are not in a kingdom where we charge high price for our daughter we don’t we encourage them that they should marry just a little token what is important, the two families must come together witness the marriage, the token of money I think is 600 pans it changes it used to be 12 chilies, so it changes I think the highest now is N1,200 that is the pride price that you pay, when you pay, what is important is that two of them should come together, we don’t say I marry your daughter I pack a lot of money (No) we expect when our son goes to marry similar things but if our son goes to other places they charge o we try to pay to them but here people who come to marry our daughter they are happy what is important is that let there be love between the two of them that is how do our marriage.
Answer: Yes we strictly abore adultery and if such thing happen is a big crime in our community we have special sanction for it, even to the extent at times we dissolve the marriage on account of adultery is as bad as that, that is why our married women here are very causion because if you do it though they may have some sacrifice but less causes we don’t tolerate it, but our men when you talk of adultery on women but the other side unfortunately our men are open to marry more than one wife that is our tradition here it is only the women that cannot marry more than one man. We try to encourage the men to love the women equally.
Answer: If you look historically, the believe of Urhobo people and Oghara people has been changing over time, in the past during Mary Slessor people think twins are evil they kill the twins, it use to happen like that here but time has change that culture, in the past when women dies during delivery they think is evil but things are changing to modern time, we don’t see those things as evil any longer, our culture is not different from what old culture use to be they are involving and is changing so today if people dies during delivery we don’t see it as evil, it happens everywhere the society has, come to know its scientific Phenomenon, that things can go wrong. Many of us are Christians this day and we are falling Christianity and education.
Education has open us to new awareness and that is what Oghara is going through now.
Answer: We encourage people to have their various meeting, we don’t dictate to them we know there are some people who have their own association they call meeting they hold their meeting they know how they take care of themselves and recognize themselves, they contribute resources to themselves ad celebrate annually, and they help themselves, those meeting, is not something that is controlled or recognised by the kingdom but we allow them to associate according to their wish we have women meeting and we purely men meeting they also have a combination of men and women association and they have their their own rules and regulations.
Answer: Urhobo is large and they have own dialect, Oghara has its own unique dialet even different from our neighbour here Jesse, when Oghara man speak the dialect and the pronunciation is different from Jesse but the original language of Oghara is that of Agbara where history said we migrated from, the pronunciation is a little bit different from the Agbara where we migrated from, the way Oghara speaks is different from our neighbour Jesse and even Mosogar different from Okpe, Uvwie, different from Alaja, yes we have our own.
Answer: Over time in those day, the chief priest when there was interregnum, when they bring the person they look unto as king up till now we still have chief priest but we don’t have enormous role they play any longer, the chief priest position is still, he still goes to the Ogbejor, the two Ogbejor have chief priest and they play their role but not the role they when their was no king. The chief priest are still there and of course chief believes in their own culture today many of them are now Christian, so they don’t so much believe in role of chief priest but they say give what belong to ceasar to ceasar and what to God to God that is what we call for me I am a Christian I believe in God, at times when they say the chief priest is here I say okay give to him that is the part of the community.
Answer: Baptist church in Oghara and it is located in a place called Ovade and that is where my ancestors comes from I am from Ovade, the church is abut one hundred and something years now and since then other churches has sprung up.
Answer: Unfortunately they are not here now and that is why we are trying to set up a gallery where we will put our previous rulers, even the one I have I don’t know whether is hanging, this is a challenge I want to ask the pg to quickly do in action we are trying to set up a library when you come like this, this is the one for my predecessor this is called Orike I am just following this one, the one before Orike is not here now but we have it somewhere, is a good thing.
By and large we are through with this section we will just come to snap some pictures.
MOSOGAR KINGDOM
Because it was our turn to provide the next king but they said no, we are not as many as they are, so they have to have two short at it, before it gets to our turn, we can’t stay with, because at that point, we got our own nation free, thanks to Amori and all that, our own king who was snatch from Idjere, because I am not Idjere man, but say my salary Idjere, but by salary am here for Mosogar, so we want to be able to help them, with this very important project, we are looking at.
Answer: I am his royal majesty, Uduye the first Ugovie of Mosogar kingdom. Uduye is derive from two of the ruling houses in Mosogar, one is Uduye I the other is Uduaka, I came from Uduye royal house that is why I am Uduye the first, the very first king to come from Uduye royal house in Mosogar kingdom. My name before I became are – Samson Okiloba Omena, the name Okiloba has its symbolic meaning, my grandmother had a first child a girl, second child girl, then the first child had a girl instead of a boy, by the time my mother had me the first child a boy, my grandmother now said yes, it is now her, so that it is I believe I have answered that questions (yes).
Answer: Okay, like I said earlier, my brief discussion with you on your arrival here, Mosogar was part of Jesse kingdom, the formal Jesse kingdo before Mosogar was created was made up of three (3) clans I central sub clan and Ojogu sub clan, at the time of installation appointment of the first king of Jesse, it was agreed that after the reign of that king, the name there Agbamisa Atalaga, after his reign it will be the turn of Mosogar to choose his successor, at his demise, instead of Mosogar being called upon to produce his successor, the Idjere sub clan wanted to have a second short at the Ovieship, so Mosogar feeling very disappointed and unhappy decided it was time for them to pull out from Idjere kingdom and have their own kingdom, fortunately we have a very vibrant effective Mosogar as at that time in the person of Igomorota Amori, he was in government and through his effort it was possible of curs he was assisted by other prominent Mosogars it was possible to get our own kingdom, of curs we got our own kingdom and the zero it on me and I was invited to be their king, then I just retired from government, so it was possible for me to make myself available for the kingship, that is it.
Answer: Principally is farming, they are farmers and traders mainly they are farmers and traders but not gib time traders, not big time business men, but traders of what but essentially they are farmers.
Answer: Not the big time industry, we have the palm wine bar something, big force by the government then we have the garri market again build for us by the government, it terms of education, we have the college of education which is government sponsored I think that is about all, the others are establish by individuals like Sawmill although we don’t have much of that this days we also have some fisher men but not on a large scale.
Answer: Challenges, definitely we have, first is finance, you see people have brilliant ideals, the finance to make it come to pass or practicalise it is a problem, then we have lack of expertise, we don’t have the relevant expertise, the skills require to set up business and make such business flourish is not there in the right proportion, in the right scale, unfortunately we don’t have foreign interest.
Otherwise, we have very fertile land for agriculture, we are not making use of such fertile land for agriculture because of lack of interest from foreigners who can actually helps develop the farming sector, it is not just possible for indigenes alone to play that role effectively, when you have a mixtures of foreigners and indigenes it is a competing among themselves, progress is evirably a result of effort.
Answer: Developmental challenges yes – like roads, electricity, water, hospital, do you have those things?
Answer: Yes, to some extent I will give pass mark to government, government has given us our share of development, there is a road that links mexical town itself with the interland, the outsketch of Mosogar from here we have a road linking from here to Ugbakele, Amenobo through Gbokwa through Obe and so on and Internally we cannot complain too much because government has given us some roads with the city, a number of roads, all thanks to Amori, he played a prominent role in this regard, I will that by way of rout, although oliver twist will always ask for more, there are some of our roads that needs repair, they are in bad shape, we will need such roads to be rehabilitated, on balance I will say government has done a lot for us in that regards, well in education government has done a lot, we have a college of education we have a number of secondary school government run, you see, our student enrolment is high pretty high for our kingdom like ours, we are not a gib kingdom but we are big in terms of development in terms of geographical size, I think we are about we are one of the smallest kingdom in Urhobo land but in terms of development we rub shoulders with kingdoms like Okpe, Sapele, Uwvie and so on, I will that we are not doing badly.
Answer: Yes of course they do, fortunately, we have an outfit, the vigilanty group, they help in keeping the Fulanis at break, we are also very diplomatic especially at the level of the palace you see, we have been able to let the Fulanis know that we are brothers, this is not their first time of being here, they have here for quiet a while and we have always lived together happily, so you can come allow your cattle to graze but eat our crops and you the herders, or cattle rearers or herds men rape our women that is unacceptable, diplomatically we have been able to talk sense into them, so the problem is not as accrued as it is in other part of Nigeria, Mosogar like I said before has very fertile soil, some companies are trying to avade themselves of the opportunities in that regard, for instance right now, a CBN sponsored project farming project, we have required several hectare of land several, over 1500 hectares of land, the people want to make cassava this cassava am told there are already buyers, of course, CBN will not just give out their money for the fun of it, you see this ready buyers are from China and this cassava, is not to be eaten but want to use it for yes industrial something is going to really boost the economy of this kingdom because it is a multi billion naira project, that is the big thing that is happening to us right now.
Answer: Like I told you before we have a vigilante group, quiet apart from that we have safe politicians, cool headed politicians, politicians who regard their kingdom as best priority, whether you belong to party A or party B the peace of the kingdom is paramount in the minds of the politicians we have here, so they work together to ensure that there is peace in the kingdom, they make sure that the youths are mobilize positively for positive ends, we have youth, of the kingdom uppermost in their minds, they work in close collaboration with the vigilante group, there is brief senergy between the youth and the vigilante group so we don’t have the kind of disturbance that we have oher kingdom, so I should count ourselves as lucky in that regard.
Answer: Fortunately the investors are inviting themselves, because the story of the fertility of Mosogar soil is wide spread apart from this one, I mentioned this one particularly because it is a huge project, huge in concretion and huge in expected heeds, we have other investors like those that acquire lands for palm trees, you see they have plantations, although one we are in talk with him, he is not meeting all our needs, we have quiet a number so, on the recently the Ibru organization acquire a large expanse of land here in Mosogar, although with the demise of the principle investor, Micheal Ibrue himself you see been alone in business, a kind of set back, but the plantations are still there, we have those coming to us to acquire large land they call it Jatormous land they first planted rubber but now the place is fallowing, huge land, but we are taking our time, is not every investor.
Investor that comes that means well, so we are taking our time to thoroughly screen their application instead of jumping to conclusion to say come come, we don’t lack investor they disturb us almost all time.
Thank you very much.
I want to thank you for your patience and every success in the management of this project is a something that is of huge benefit of the people of the Niger Delta first we will know ourselves, respect one another in Niger Delta there will be inter ethnic cooperation that is key which we hold us together this king of project will hold us together, project us as a people till another section of the country, once again I thank you for your effort and I wish you every success in life.
Answer: Mosogar is strategically blessed what do I mean by that, you can access any other of part of the country through Mosogar, you can access port Harcourt, Akwa Ibom, Calabar and so on, you see we have roads that links us to that area. We can access Lagos, Ughelli and we can access the northern part of the country, quiet and far from that, Mosogar are very proud people, they are small in size but prodigious in terms of the way they comport themselves, practically because they are geographically small they want to excel in condol, see that is what we are, respected by our neighbours, an additional fact is that Mosogar appears to be the first kingdom am sorry to say this, to have a top civil servant as their king, retired civil servant at federal government level. I don’t want to mention my, line, I will blowing the trumpet too much, we are unique in that scence the way we comport ourselves, although we are geographically small but we want to be seen ourselves as big.
Okay thank you very much.
OLOMU KINGDOM
For making this day a reality, I have people these chairs here are meant for people to sit on but because many people has told us do this and do that I have failed, when we are prepared waiting for them they will not come, so people are getting unhappy, even myself I don’t want to bring people here and at the end they expected guest, so please just accept us as you have seen today. The man sitting by my left here is th oldest chief in the kingdom, the most senior in the hyracy of chieves in the kingdom apart from the traditional rulers, you also been an Isoko man, you might have seen me, all these Ofagbe and the rest of them I come to them, my grandmother is from Isoko from Ozoro from Erovie quarters, from the family of Igide that is where my grandmother comes from and my great great great grandfather is from Bayelsa that is from Ukogbe, his name is Ogworo that is what I am answering today he is brother to Igbede the founder of Ikuogbodo in Burutu local government and as I said I appreciate your coming all what you said actually nationality basis you want to combine all the people together so that we can have the knowledge of one another so as I appreciate our heritage I am very glad, anyway what you said about the history if we take a look at them we should take them one by one, then at my age it is not easy, you see my movement has I come, it is an obligation official duty and I must perform it, at the age of 100 + 3 you see by January I will be 104 years so you see, God is very gracious to me, for the book you said I have written a book about Olomu, it will give a life and insight about the people of Olomu kingdom.
Olomu kingdom has you hear is one of the oldest kingdom in Urhobo nation and one of the largest as well, in our community we have common boundary with Ogor, Ughelli, Effrotor, Jeremi kingdom and Kparabe kingdom and the main kingdom in Ikuegbodo these are our neighbours we have minimum of 15 important communities to show you how large it is, apart from fishing camps and farm camps we have about 15 nmely Ugoni Ogobo where we are now, we have Obori Olomu where the chief came from Opervene Olomu, Okpe Olomu, Agbon Olomu, Akperen Olomu, Oviri Olomu and Oba Olomu, Owudokpokpo Olomu, Umolo Olomu, Okpare Olomu, where the president general came from, we have another one Oviekpala Olomu, Owor Olomu, the home town of Late Gen. Ejor, Oviekpala Olomu is the home town of Chief Micheal Ibu, these are the communities we have in Olomu, coming to the migration, the history of Olomu is very complex, there are two versions the first version is from one Johnson the white men from those days, the Colonial masters who gave the history and some of the people who gave them the history might not known so much about it they gave us a clue of what has happened in the past that of Johnson’s version says that Olomu kingdom was founded in the first place by a man called Alaka from Agbon land we call it Ibon land, so we settle for a place called Owodo or otor Olomu between Eru – Urhobo and Akpere Olomu why they were there the young man from Ijaw land that is Ugobri visited Alaka, Ugoro the man Ugoro came with his brother Igbele, Igbele settle at Ekiagbodo but Ugoro went beyond but because Alaka had three (3) children 2 males and 1 female the males are Uguhie and Ogunamen and then the lady there was Defiebel this lady was given to Ogworo for marriage, they stayed there, so they lived in that place so why they were there at Ogwodo one Igbodie and the Benin prince joined them but before then there was crises between the Odumode and the Owo people, Odu people do think it cause a lot of disagreement on that light the people decided to move again to another side which is Ekietor Olomu or Ekieyorere Olomu that was the version by Johnson another one is the version by Albert, one Albert said that Olomu was founded by a Muslim, the Benin prince who have rulership tussel, crises in Benin because if he does not get the kingship of the Oba of Benin, they decided to live Benin and came to this hailer he was coming, as he was coming in those days according to history, he was coming on a canoe, they came to a place the Benin place near Oviri Olomu, this Oviri Olomu a stream, we don’t know, today the stream is not there, but they said they coming on a canoe, the canoe capside and the wife died, in other to, they made blues cast of the face of the woman, which is today still available they keep it in the Ibose shrine, so they said this Ibose was the founder according to Albert that these people came and joined him, however Ibose when he came he had cordial relationship with Ibose’s Ibo, with Ogoro and Alaka then he then he introduced this chieftaincy Olorogun title in Olomu and Olomu is the first people to have this title in the whole of Urhobo nation, they are Imam dance royal dance is a dance for chieves it has been baster dise today that they dance it everywhere and girls and women are dancing it, it was not so in those days, it was grown up men very aided people that dance it.
If any woman join them at all is a woman of advance age no longer having affair with men that is the woman that used to dance with them with their breast open down but today it has been basterdise girls can dance it they do anything and call it Imam so this Imam and chieftaincy title started in Olomu in those days, so now it has spread to the whole of Urhobo nation, and even to other, like Ibo people wearing this thing and that in those days there were not so it is because of change, however am talking about the origin migration, this man thinks Ibose is a founder which is not as authentic as Johnson, we begin to accept both of them as our own. When you go there today you will hear of Ibose Ibose Ibose have you heard of that? (No)
We have the Ibose festival, later according to history news came from Benin that the position of Obaship was flowing from Ibose to Ocupa that he should go back to Benin, it was when Oduese introduce these things and then told Olomu people to always motherlised his name, in those day they celebrated Ibose in every twenty (20) years to 10 years now reduce to 5 years, after the departure of Ibose the man called Olomu was there then the spread the people, the spread came, after the Ibose there came Alaka, Alaka when he wants to die he gave the rulership of the area to a man called Olomu, he was not still sure, so this brought about confusion and argument in the community, those people who oppose to the rulership of Olomu decided to leave the community that is why we have people of Olomu at Olomoro, Olomoro is a community of Olomu, Owologbo some people went there, then we have Okere Urhobo some people also went there it is also a Olomu community so people also went to Okpe people call it Okpese, this is the little I can tell you about the origin from Ijaw, from Ibo from Benin put together, I believe full of it this book I wrote the 19th birthday celebration, it can get everything here, have I signed it.
We have Owrode as the head, they need there before the advent of the colonial masters, the had this Owrode but they were not calling it Oko, they were it Orowolomu and the two families then were Ukutie and Owroro they had Owrode as the head the next name is Okonta the prime minister, this two titles rotated around these families, the colonial era we had about 8 heads who came from the two families one after the other but when the white man came the colonial masters, there was struggle of who will be the head of the kingdom between two people, one man of Ige by name, he is from Owor community, the other man is Ikogo from Okpe Olomu.
Ovedje from Owor Olomu, Ikogu from Okpe Olomu, Ikogu then was a chief ancestral priest of Ibgude then they wanted to be the head of Olomu kingdom Ovedje said no, go to serve our people and this government side we want to be there so there was serious trouble between the two the kingdom was divided some followed Ovedje and some followed Ikogu at the end community of devaring was set up they wrote from the region of devaring from there they change Oworolomu to Okorode of Olomu, Okorode that is the big man, man who has money, influence people will listen to they introduce that name, that judgement of then is that Ovedje should be the Orode, the oldest Ikogu should go and serve ancestral father, after this division they gave us the head of judiciary and everything am sorry they couldn’t have it snap here.
Today the successors of rulership who would find them in that book, the community you will find inside that book, some leadership and so fort, I am the 12th Ogwrode the post accordial (post colonial) Ogwrode, the post colonial the first was Ovedje from Uvwie ruling family the second was Okorodudud from Umukoro family, the next was Thomson Marcheche from Iguwie, followed by Govoyole from Iguwie, then I succeeded as Ogbon today so it is about the ownership, we have traditional council made up of Ogworode and the chieves of the community that is administration. You know what that could say, this was a member of the council too, we have of the Otota, the spoke’s man in the community we have a council men youth that is Uduaga they take charge of their group we have a group of Eweya married women in the community they have their own group, we have Imete daughters of the land, we have youth and other congress of small small people, we Orowukugbe union of which I was the president general, founder and president general in 1954, I remain there until I was made the Ogwrode in March 5 1988, I never said I will be there official but each time I want to leave the community will say I should not leave now that union we call Orukugbe union we were able to establish certain things in the community, before our time there was no secondary school, in the community but in our time we were able to build 4 secondary schools which was commissioned on the same day under mid west, by the deputy governor of the mid west state Dermas Borel as at that time, the school were open secondary Utuire Olomu, Obare grammar school, Owor secondary school then Ovedje Olomu secondary school. We graded roads and posta agencies as at that time, haven in said that, we have a general council these council which we hold here, the leadership every under organization are represented men, women, youth and purpose we deliberate on general progress on the place, we also have administration council, which looks into matters between individuals and communities and inter communities. Okay I think I will stop there first.
Olomu kingdom land tenure is peculiar lands are own by families not individuals when families have their lands they share it when they want to farm among the members of the family, some are there to remain perpetual others they from time to time so that people who grows up to be adult will have other opportunity of their share, the Ogwrode of Olomu cannot just come out and sit in somebody land, he say take this land he cannot do it, if you want to get land even the youths of the community in purpose you have to approach the family and tell them the importance of the project you want to reside on it then you will get it so our land tenure is family owned people who belong to the family have power over land that is our land tenure.
Answer: Today we have challenges you know every organization has challenges and it benefits, with the white man coming in, we the church coming in things have change from their original position, for instance in the past one of us Ogrowode define now, because with the coming of the politics, coming of Christianity is never there, so that is a very big challenge so there is one young man of people contributing can take the rulership to court because you there not do it, so this is one of he challenges today, another challenges we have is unity which is brought about by politics political parties hardly agree to fully with their fellow politicians, they fight for their individual party people go to court and then make mockery together in the community, we have some other challenges, like today government has in fractures over the state or federal area then as big as Olomu is we don’t have single hospital, people have to travel all the way to Igborode for delivery or medical help that is a very big challenge for us also. This is a challenge too we don’t have federal previlence / we don’t have state previlense in terms of education university the government infrastructure our children have to travel out before they can get any of these things. As time goes on if I have more I will tell you.
It is a serious challenge to us here, we have been serious disagreement with them, the cattle’s destroy our crops, the people, our women and girl daughters, they even fight people and cut people, the area commander no no, it is a serious challenge, they refuse to live our land and nobody cares.
Answer: We have land, but there is no single industry as big as this place both individual, government and so fort we don’t have any, it is a big challenge.
We preach to our sons and daughters to do something but no way, we are crying to government, for instance there is no way place of attraction people visit, I think in 2018 personally I travelled far and wide and I saw many things, I cried to the government we want to have a museum in our place here, I submitted my old palace is in the town here, I donated it, they did not reply, until this year, I think about 2 or 3 months ago when a representative of culture and tourism came here I brought up the mater they said I should reapply, I have applied but no answers, no place of attraction it is crabe like that it is a big challenge.
Answer: We have very particularly expansive land area in a place called Oferi Olomu oher communities have moderate land, we can site any industry, some industry doesn’t need much land, but the land we have here right from Oteri down to Jeremi area here can accommodate any river, we have a river at Okpare down to Owor to Owodokpokpo, is a river leading to Niger river we have land, and water, that can accommodate any industry, as we are speaking right now we have no light except the part of this kingdom that has light, that is one of the most pressing issue, few of the community has light, bigger part of it on the other way has no light, so when you are talking of industry and you do not have light I using generator here everyday, we have a case with nepa we have put them to court, we have sewed them to nepa because they did not give us light, we have done all we can, we – have gone to Benin, Asaba to discuss the issue they were found guilty but they refuse to obey judgement so we put nepa the new people who are supplying light to court now. So everyday is generator, we have oil at Okpare Olomu, Umulo Olomu we have oil and gas producing community nothing else.
Answer: Peace and security is the day in Olomu kingdom, Olomu kingdom is the most peaceful kingdom in Delta state. the government is aware our youth is on my beck and core they don’t rcruit residence it is an alien to us here, if they want to do any thing they consult, whatever we tell them to do they do that. We have vigilante group in the whole of Olomu kingdom, in the general community we have vigilante group in the whole of Olomu and in each of the community they also have their own group of vigilante in addition to the central body. Olomu I svery very peaceful we will tell you that violence is alien no community crises, no inter kingdom clashes, we are peaceful even both with our neighbours too.
We are enjoying the conservation and am finding it very difficult to stop.
Answer: Like I told you earlier, in those day, we will use to celebrate this Igbose festival but today, when we celebrated it in those day Olomoro people will come Okere wherever our people migrated to they will come for the festival, but with civilization and the coming of Christianity today I am a Christian king, the man sitting there is a bishop in his own church so that Igbose festival is fading out individual community had annual festival which they celebrate some do Uje dane I don’t know what you call it in Isoko, individual community have their festival others troop. They have Uje, masquerade, Igbogori yan, Ikpolo and the rest of them which they celebrate, however we are trying to have a festival that will embrace all the people together which I have, even the name of Ejiromeyowen, ejiromeyowen when I was president general from 1954 – 1974 the things development found we had was in 1974 after working for 20 years the whole of Olomu people came together to donate money to development the area and that was when the 4 secondary school emerged we call it Eoymeyoyin festival we have already started how we can make it a reality, so we can embrace all the people. Then as for religion, most of our people were predominantly African religion participant, but with the coming of Christianity. Today Olomu is a Christian community, I have over 160 churches in the community today all these juju, masquerade dances is fading out, we hav all th denominations, in this my community we have over 10 churches denominations, it is not a big community I can say Olomu is a Christian community by religion, all the Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Pentecostal all here. Religion today we are Christian community.
Answer: If you can remember, I told you we have traditional councils, we also have administration councils, traditional council generally binds the whole of Olomu people, if there is a matter between two communities we settle it here, as much as if somebody by accident kill its neighbour we settle it here, we don’t go into the government and every community has weekly or every 14 days to meet we call it the elders community (okpako). They meet to settle mattes in their community it is those matters that are above them they bring for us and for the different segment of the people, women there are certain matters that happen between one woman and the other they go to the untold and report I there likewise the youth, when all these avenues have failed, it is then they go to the court or go to the police, most of the community have ruled that no body should bring a policeman to come and arrest anybody without first reporting the issue to the leadership of the community it is the law of the community, if two people have matter you have to report to the leadership but if you don’t report and you bring a policeman you will be ask to pay fine. Stealing is under taboos in my area we don’t allow it in those days when stealing was not allowed if you caught anyone stealing we get rope and tie it on his waist, dragging him people will be beating and flogging him, he will go to the bush bring ant and use it to put his head, then use some other wood to hurt him physically. Stealing is a taboo in our community, for instance in Ogoni here that is my place a bye log anybody who steals and is caught will appear before the community court with two bottles of hot, he will hold one here and the other there and appear before the court, and if he is found guilty, he is fine one hundred thousand naira before he will go to settle with the man’s property whom he stole from, should he failed he is taken to the police, so the whole of Olomu stealing is a taboo we don’t tolerate it, I think we are fully alright in the community, stealing is not much the other is adultery from time in memorial our people don’t allow it, in Olomu adultery is not only having affair with another man’s wife you there not hold a woman’s hand in her wrist in our community, don’t shake hand with a woman, then if you are circumcised or unciumcised and a woman is sitting you don’t cross her legs if anyone crosses it, the woman has committed adultery, so adultery is highly forbidden and they charge heavily in the adulterer, not only the man but the woman as well both of them pay, so we don’t allow it, abduction is the worst, you see if we find a boy a young man abducting somebody’s daughter, the person when is caught is beaten sevilly and the parents as well will be involve and whatever the parents of the female demands is what they pay. But it is not common because of the severity of punishment given to people who practice such a thing. The other is wrong information and false accusation. We have a saying that if you say somebody steal something you will be charge for it to pay something, then if somebody says lie against it fellows one, as you will charge the false arguser too it is a serious thing they take it to the community, if it is not well treated those who are pargans will call the man to juju to swear for wrong information.
Before 1911, Olomu has embrace Christianity, that was what I can remember because the first church was built at Okpare that was 1911 / 1912 as record as taken it here in Olomu community, it is very much there that is Anglican church before it was extended to other community, for you to know our king is a Christian to the call back in 19th century, so we embrace Christianity far back in 1911.
Traditionally, we have two modern messenger in the past even up till now we have something important like pressing if we want people to come to the palace, (messenger somebody appointed to go round and give information from the palace) to the person concern, that is our own traditional way of doing it. Today with the evidence of telephone, we send text to people, live the chief is here I ask my secretary to send him text message these are the major things ways of doing this is a village, this same messenger, we have town criers, some of them do it verbally, some of them have big horn or glow, so once the big horn is blown, people will know something is happening. For instance in this our community here, if something extraordinary happens, the man who blows the bigo, once he blows the bigo people will know that something has happened and they will all gather, that is how we pass our information.
Answer: We have several dishes, we have Iribotor, okparku, amedi,ukudo, iriberayen then owhoirin this is an oil soup and it is the highest, when we have occasions, marriages we must cook this oil soup, you use good fish and not yeye fish, when we have very important visitors we cook owho soup, if we circumcise a woman we cook owho soup but today the woman circumcision is no more. Owho soup which is oil soup is very important and it is not cook everyday.
Answer: I tried to but two things I in the time of those colonial masters there was no photograph for instance the photograph of my father is there which we took in 1936 there was no photograph anywhere I trek to Warri to invite a photographer to take him photograph, I even, in those days the believe was that if they take you photograph the person will die soon. Because they will use one red cloth to cover their head you don’t see the man then you snap the person, so that of my father one of my father children, my father had 24 children, I am the last but one, he sent me to Warri to invite a photographer, you will see the photograph when you come out there, he died in 1922 so we don’t see those photograph, the photograph we are suppose to have today is the first colonial owhorodo ovedje, ovedje had photograph but his people refuse to give it to me then the only one I have is that of okorodudu, okorodudu is there the only photograph we have there now is myself and okorodudu my father over a 100 years when he died.
Individual communities have something which is they don’t touch and they don’t eat in those days.
Presently in my community here males don’t eat snail, the male don’t share tortoise with a woman, if they are burning or cooking tortoise it is for the male alone then the male will eat it. Then the woman will prepare and eat their own, they don’t eat together, that is for community, but for Olomu generally they don’t eat crocodile they believe that Olomu man have to be associated with that capside canoe, they will call that crocodile Inene meaning my mother, once they call Inene inene once the crocodile will appear and step at the back they will take him to offshore, so they don’t eat, if somebody eats it, they sign will Oron, rashes all over his body, the face serious one then the chief priest in charge of Olomu, the man has to go there for the chief priest to apiece the gods and today if somebody eats it they charge you 400 hundred thousand or more when somebody eats and craw craw will be all over the persons body but with Christianity many Olomu people now eat crocodile, if you a true Christian is a text for us, I have eaten crocodile, there was one leader in my community here he is an Anglican he use to go to pond kill this crocodile and prepare soup for it, after the service he will say there is food at home people who believe themselves they will follow him, if your faith is not strong and you there eat it, and if you are going on the way and you see crocodile dead on the floor you must cry like who have lost a mother, or father, brother and then you will find a white cloth to bury it if not the craw craw will come on your body.
Answer: If a woman under pregnancy or during delivery happens to pass on, is an abomination in Urhobo kingdom, such women who died with the baby in the womb, if such a thing happens, the people responsible in the community or different community where the thing happens are invited they come and carry the dead body in the night you dare not see the people they carry it to the bush, they throw it there and not buried when they come back to the town they stay in the town for 7 days in the nigh when they are moving, singing you don’t see them people lock themselves inside in their room if you see them you are in trouble that is about a woman in that nature for the other person who confess of so much wickedness and atrocities committed against his or her fellow people must die, usually the burial is mostly left for the family, we cannot allow the dead body to disturb the peace of the community it is buried unceremoniously and those days if somebody is found to be a witch usually they sell the person to Ijaw land she will not be allowed to remain with us here.
I remember my father had a slave who stay with us here and there was a time the slave went to the bush cut a tree and dug a canoe and told my father he wants to go Ijaw and go and bring fish, we took the canoe to Oguname there, we call the man Esifer when he wants to go my father said go and come and bring fish, he went and never came back again.
Answer: Years ago when the white man the missionaries in particular they organize schools and wanted people to send their children to school prominent people in those days are chieves, warrant chieves were ask to bring children to school but most of them refuse and went to poor family to bring their children to school. They say go to suffer, they whip the children then education was not recognized it was given to poor people’s children then as time progresses the missionaries is expanding, people will have ideal to go to school my father had 21 children, I am the last but one and am the only one that attended school, I went to school at the age of 20 years primary school why farming, one of colleagues young man friends, two of us lived in the same house I am senior to him, he was going to school that school at Okpare, that school at Okpare was found in 1930, the primary school at Okpare 1930, I went there with my father when they opened the school I did not go there until 1936 when I was 20 years, my friend here whom we go to farm together will be going to school his mother was the one who saw school children else where and when she came home she sent the son to school the father did not support her.
They didn’t want people to go school people go there to suffer. It was gradually the time is changing, I went to primary school when I got there, pupils were saying what class is this teacher going to teach at then they put me in primary one the man whom you taught is a teacher is in primary one and the first English word I learnt was you are called. That was during the empire days, we the big boys will carry food we are going to cook for pupils at Ughelli I was carrying this thing, some body said you are called, you are called I didn’t understand. As time goes on today Olomu became a citadel of knowledge and education KHMS school at Okpare has boarding facility. The house or classroom were roofed with thatches teachers then were mostly from 100, my first teacher was Itselkiri man I don’t understand Itsekiri, I don’t understand English, people come from Isoko to stay at Okpara, came from Ijaw I have one Ijaw man Thomas Toku western Ijaw, he went to Burutu from the river. We were competing for first position so it is. As time goes on people send their children to school Olomu as well followed suit and we have great men and great woman of education. Although we have no secondary school and men went to Onitcha and Port Harcourt Arituna grammer school others went to drugs, dermicks memorial grammer school Onitcha, hope model school Calabar so this where our sons and daughters landed. As long as Olomu lives we have our first graduate in 1948 the person of Evang. Jeremiah Morsheshe, the great evangelist that building down over there the day he came from abroad, it was wonderful it was a reception Olomu people in Lagos, Benin, Warri, Ibadan and Ughelli welcomed him and finally my union, Olomu patriotic movement which I formed in 1954, then I was a headmaster, we level the people of Olomu and they all paid we dash.
Today we have vice chancellors, our first vice chancellor was Philip Kwale is from this place too, we have the late Gen. Ejow from Owor Olomu here, we have our president general which you know UPU and Olomu Urukugbe union Olorogun Moses Tiger, and by education Olomu was able to produce a first female ambassador and is my late daughter ambassador Elizabeth Obude, the first female ambassador in Nigeria Olomu produced her but she is late in the time of Shagari government. We have so many doctors, engineer, pastors and so on we can’t count them.
Death is by our culture and tradition he may not live long but have good reputation that is good test, the other one is bad test, people die in a way you will not expect, somebody who died in a motor accident is bad test, someone who died in fire consecration is bad test, someone who drown in the sea or water is bad test,a woman who dies with pregnancy is a bad test, someone who commits suicide is bad test, these bad death are not buried in the community, they are buried just any how in the bush in Olomu tradition, I have told you that of a woman with pregnancies but other can be carry to the bush few people or family people may follow. So this is one of the things that helps people to live a normal good life. So that when they will die they will be honourable buried.
The circumcision in those days was done with pump and predatory it was very great you will love to be a woman in those days, when the circumcised a woman the whole town will be jubilating, the first the women group will go and dance they give gift to them, then the Okpako, the elders will elude, the youths have their own, the whole day is meant for the circumcision of that maiden, where they will construct a bed high some where there they call it eshurugbo, the woman will climb to the top to sleep there for 3 months also she will not do any work, she will have bride maids oh oh very interesting everybody honours her she doesn’t do anything in the community till after 5 months and so on but today all those things are no longer in practice especially the female mutilation coming over the.
We don’t talk about female private part freely you dare not mention it, so it is very sacred but today they mention it anyhow. People who do it do it privately but some times as soon as the child is born they do it in the hospital that is for circumcision, marriage we have two types of marriage one is ose and the other is real marriage for the real marriage we have Christian, traditional marriage there are process to reach there in those days you have to approach the parents, but today women are so free the process of getting married in Olomu kingdom is very elaborated. But I think the time is far spent now and I will stop here for the 5 people you said it is not a see now I will do a rush.
OKPE KINGDOM
The Okpe kingdom is made up of two LGA, Okpe his headquarter in Ororokpe and Sapele LGA, because of the fastness the kingdom is divided into 13 districts we have the district heads that oversee the districts, though they call them district heads, the traditional one calling them is called Orovie, the eyes of the district they are my eyes in the district. They report to me what is happening in their district in that way we have to keep our best in what is happening in the district. In the whole kingdom when you were speaking there was an issue which you raise which am not too sure if we will cover that area during the work. Issue of abandon project, issue of lack of electricity, while in this kingdom especially in Sapele we will have two generative plan, generative into the minimum grade at the end there is no light in the kingdom. Most of the town like a marina marina will say water water everywhere but non to to drink we give other people light and we don’t have light, what am trying to tell you is that may be those omissions which were not quit covered we will send them to you so that everything will be properly documented so that even at the state level, NDDC level, the federal level you will know the areas that we are lacking, for good example the Sapele technical college for instance was equal to at the time the Sapele technical college was establish that is the same time Nepa college, that is the same time the similar one was Ibadan, Kaduna, Polythenic now Sapele technical college and even the one in Enugu all of them has gone to be big polythenic whereas we set out Nepa college is in where it is, that shows that our people are being oppressed they don’t want to give us anything, in the whole of this kingdom there is no tertiary, institution this village for this town Ororokpe, there was a time during the colonial period that we have Warri division or province it is made up Urhobo division and Warri division, Ororokpe was the headquarter of Urhobo division made up of all the present local government like Ethiope East, Ethiope West, Uvwie, Udu, Ughelli North, Ughelli South and even part of Isoko, they were under Ororokpe here and even when it was change to Western Urhobo, Ororokpe also became the capital of Western Urhobo division while Ughelli now became capital central Urhobo, Eastern Urhobo, Eastern Urhobo is also the central Urhobo and all these places development has come and ye non is coming to my place, so success government are not talking wise and may be because we don’t have people in government, so they neglect us so government should not be bad because of base on who you are, it should be base on equity, what is good for the people, because not that my people are not in position but somehow what is due to us are not given to us, my people are tormenting, we do hope that all this information you put them in your website may be somebody will say let us come and do something for this people, once again I want to welcome you for this project before we accepted to be part of it we hav eto look at it of what benefit will it bring to us there were a lot of debate let us just put it there so that we will know we are a kingdom in the Niger delta our name will be there, so what we are going to do we base on what you wanted we try to break the presentation in that order I will now like to call Prof. Damuyibo to go come and do the presentation or do you want to ask some question or tell us the way you want it or the presentation is base on what you want. Once again, you are welcome and God bless.
Thank God we have a worldly son of the soil who will handle it but in the letter sent you you, you have given an overall introduction and interview of it but there are some few places like the challenges of the kingdom as you know it, kingdom wise you have stated some of them and the present peace and security of the Okpe kingdom that aspect you will personally handle that through voice video recording device so that we will take that aspect and document, it what you just said now will be there, people will hear from the number one citizen of the kingdom as the king and as the formal military general so you have all the powers so we post it the way it is after getting other areas that have normal procedures, so without wasting much time we will go to number 1 of the
Answer: Thank you very much, I am Prof. Damuyi Damoyibo of the Delta state university, about the history and migration of the Okpe people, the Egyptian heads aspirates in the 7th century D.C is the originator of the Okpe people and we are aware that the Okpe people and language existed even before the birth of Christ among other languages in the world. In the 7th century B.C the air apparent of the Eygptians kingdom is the prejanitor of the Okpe people and by 812 B.C there was a wave of migration from the near east of Sudan and Egypt by different people or people of various cultures including the Yorubas, the Okpe and others it wasn’t quite clear whether the Oji Oduduwa of Ile Ife is the air apparent of the Egyptian king of the 7th century, however Oduduwa gave birth to a son known as Obalufom, Obalufom grew strong and migrated from Ile Ife to Igbotagba near Ile Ife where he gave birth to a son and named him Okpe, Okpe grew strong and migrated from Igbotagba and came to Benin with his subject and his descendant and some of his descendant stayed beyond him in the place called Okpe in the present place called Akoko Edo in Edo state. Okpe before his death in Benin gave birth to a son called Igbose, Igbose grew and became a chief in Benin kingdom, his title as a chief was Onoky and he grew strong and migrated further through the river Niger eat south and got to a place he found suitable for settlement and he establish the kingdom there, a place he called Ayotore which is been occupied today by the Okpe Olomu people and the Okpe Olomu people called the place Ekiyotor nowadays. Igbose lived there with his wives and he ruled as a king in that kingdom because he came through the river and the territorist around that area and of cues we all know that anyone who lives around river will always be traveling and engaging in various activities in the rivers in the creeks and in one occasion travelling through the river his roll boat capside and his wife the mother of his first son died in that incidence, 7 days after the burial of the wife, a mysterious life plant grew up astronomically to become a big tree I remember sometime ago in one o four classes we learnt in certain part of Africa there is a specie of bamboo tree that when it is planted, it takes about 10 years for it to germinate for years you wont see it germinating but as soon it germinates within 7 days it has grown and taller than human beings and almost taller than other trees around it, that was like the mysterious tree that grew on the grave of the wife of Igbose and Ayotore now known as Ekiyotor in the Okpe Olomu area. And Igbose saw it as a memorial that plant became a memorial of the death of his wife therefore he called the tree Izuokpe, the tree in English is known as etyla phisophora but in Okpe Igbose called it Izuokpe meaning mother of Okpe that is the reason why till date we refer to the wife of our traditional rulers as Izuokpe the mother of Okpe kingdom or the mother of Okpe people. Before the death of his first wife Izuokpe she gave birth to the first son of Igbose and Igbose felt he should name that his first son after his own father Okpe. The Okpe whom was born at Igbotogba was the father of Igbose and when Igbose had his first son he decided to name him after his father Okpe. Okpe grew strong and in the process of time one Ogoro from the Ijaw area of Ekiagbodo kingdom came visiting Igbose he became a friend to Igbose and he was coming to visit and Igbose already had a daughter that was grown and marriageable, Ogoro became interested and the marriage contract was consomenated so Ogoro married the daughter of Igbose and they had a son together of whom he named Olomu, so Olomu became the grandson of Igbose, however according to oral tradition, Olomu the grandson of Igbose was born much earlier than Okpe his first son, so he grew he was older than Okpe and he had much influence in the land according to the Okpe tradition which we have inherited from our fathers, from Igbose himself, Igbose loved the grandson so much and pampered him and when he grew up he gave him so much powers and that is why he had so much influence in the kingdom we could see that manifesting in the Okpe kingdom till date that parents cherish love and pampered their grandchildren so much. As a result when Igbose passed on, there became contention between Olomu the grandson and Okpe the first son of Igbose about who should inherite the thrown, by right of premije nature Okpe is the king or to succeed his father and because of the great influence of Olomu the grandson being older, stronger and possibly with greater influence because of his age, the love and the powers that Igbose had already given to him while he was a live, there was deception which Okpe because of his peaceful nature decided to avoid. Instead of fracas, instead of fight or wars between siblings or relations close relations at that Okpe decided to move away from Eyotore and so he moved to found another kingdom which he called Okpeyekpire, Okpeyekpire is today the present Okpe Isoko area. He founded that kingdom and ruled over it and by the risen of his departure from Eyotore. Olomu had the priviledge of becoming king succeeding Igbose. Okpe ruling over his new kingdom Okpeyekpire which is now Okpe Isoko, he had 4 sons which include Orwie, Otoro, Erike and Ezize, after a while he demise, Orwie the first son migrated further towards the place now called Ekwire and he moved further across the river and came to a place where he found a very edible plantain ripe plantain and he felt that, that land must be very fertile and he stay there and named the place Okuolukobare that is the village that is close to Ororokpe here, from there after a while he moved further and found more edible fruits of plantain in this present location which is called Ororokpe and he moved further here and planted a life tree to mark the finding of he new territory and he named the place Orereomokpe, the city of Okpes children and he went to bring his three brothers to come with him and they all finally settled here in Orereokpe and this was in 600 B.C, he lived here with his brothers and the time of migration from Okpe Olomu to Okpe Ikpere to Orereokpe and the rulership in Orereokpe for many centuries were undocumented. The time we remembered in oral history which amount to oral documentation that is available to us today is the reign of Ezize the first from 1450 – 1480, his reign was mark with greatness and development because he was a very king he was very powerful, he was the reason why Okpe was rated very highly from that time to be a very big and a very strong kingdom, powerful kingdom because even the European master and European explorers like err horne as recorded in Otite who came to examine the kingdoms in this area, in this part of the country then, he found the Okpe to be the most powerful and established kingdom and the one that set very profound example for other kingdoms in the area at that time. Ezize the first was a very powerful king who gave orders to his subject and some of the orders used to give them, he would send his messengers to beat Ozi the big drum and announce to people of different quarters to come he use to give specific date, the people of so so quarters come so so date to prove their strength, he was using that to check the strength of his army from time to time warriors of certain quarters to come and fell palm trees and in the process of falling the palm tree he would say tie a rope at the top, first of all before you attempt falling the palm tree you will climb to the top to tie a strong rope to it leading downwards then you cut when the tree is about to fall, you don’t allow the tree to fall from the cutting when you know that the tree can fall by pulling it, then he will ask the warriors to pull the rope for it to fall towards their direction and ask them to hold it and suspend it for it not to touch the ground, and in that process so many people died, and some of the subject then felt that he was too high handed that he was too brutal and so there was a plot against him which lead to his assassination, then the assassination became like war to the Okpe people which made so many people to flew you can’t just kill a king and you will have peace so people started flewing to different directions which also lead to the expansion of the kingdom because people who fled from Orereokpe establish many other communities and kingdom then spread further, at that time that also is an indication that the Okpe people hate autocracy, oppression, brutality and we can still find this as part of fruits of the Okpe man till today, many Okpe people hate oppression, misrule some of us react even individually in our various places of a bold and unemployment, sometimes when we fill oppress we don’t just keep quiet we react to it because it is already in our blood, sometimes we don’t even know when we react because we are hurt and we take oppression very seriously and we react to it there was a very long interaction between this time and that time there was a successor to return in Okpe because that king was associated in a very brutal manner and in the process he pronounce a curse on the land, the people who dug, pit in the position where they used to place his stool during council meetings and he was persuaded to attend the meeting usually Okpe rulers have power and they are back up by the almighty God himself and by the deities of the land and by the ancestral spirits therefore they are powerful before anything dangerous could happen to them, they already have premonition. The king Ezize the first actually have premonition about that, but he didn’t know exactly what is going to happen, he resisted attending that particular council meeting and he was persuaded by his closes chief to attend because of the importance of the agenda for the meeting and he attended by the time he entered the meeting hall and step on the slum not knowing that a pit was under it and was covered slightly before the stool was place on it, he collapsed into the pit and palm oil was already boiled they brought it and poured it on him and you know such would lead to slow death is not like firing ak 47 that would take away breath immediately, so he was able to struggle and pronounce a curse on the people and say is this the way you are killing your ruler for this reason you are no longer going to have a king and that curse manifested in the Okpe kingdom which leads to that long interectlum between 1480 and 1945 where we could have the stool reactivated with Ezize the second installed Ezize the second was stalled in 1945 and he reigned till 1966, then we have Ororo the first who was installed in 1972 and he reigned till 2004 before we have the present Oroje who was installed in 2004 till date. This is the brief history and migration of the Okpe kingdom, in terms of the administration in the land, traditional administration we have the Idogun Okpe which we refer to as the Okpe supreme council headed by the Oroje of Okpe, it comprises of chieves the ecakuro of Okpe kingdom, we have the secretary the Idogun Okpe, the Idogun which is the supreme council is the highest ruling body president over by the Oroje himself, after the Idogun Okpe we have the Okpe traditional council, the Okpe traditional council is constituted by the mandate of he law of the state government of the 1970s, the traditional rulers and chieftaincy laws and that traditional council Okpe is also headed by the Oroje of Okpe with the chieves as members and the chairmen of the two local government areas, Okpe and Sapele are ex official members of the Okpe traditional council, after the Okpe traditional council we have Okpe abawiyin that is the Okpe assembly, the Okpe assembly is also presided over by the Oroje of Okpe and the chieves, the ecakuros and the Oworen they are always and representing the district heads are also members and representative of the various communities as well as promising sons and daughters of the kingdom of who are invited.
The Oroje himself told you earlier administratively the kingdom is divided into district 13 districts for effective administration, the 13 districts includes Aghalokpe, Amukpe, Aragba, Elomen, Merije 1, Merije 2, Oha, Orereokpe, Ozue, Sapele, Upukyen, Uwuton, and Ugolo. The Oroje appoints among the chief of the various district as heads as what we refer to as in the kingdom Ukeoroje the head of each district is the Ukeorogje the eye of the king, in that area, that is about the administration of the kingdom apart from these level of administration in the kingdom, the centre where we have the Idogun Okpe, Okpe abawiyin sorry Okpe traditional council and Okpe abawiyin at the lower levels we have the district level where the district heads oversee, the affairs of each district on behalf of the Oroje and reports to the Oroje from time to time and then outside that we have community leadership where we have the Okpako ama the oldest man in the community and the community council of elders, where we have the chairman, secretary and all of that constituting a kind of executive from the day today running of the community and then we also have the woman groups we have the womense which comprises of the women who are by marriage members of the various communities and we have the Egbotor who are he daughters of the land. Particularly those who are still young and not yet married and also divorsees who felt like coming home to resettle in their fathers land they are always welcome. This is how leadership is organized in Okpe kingdom.
Answer: Okay I thought, I will like his royal majesty to respond to this the land tenure system varies in each community in the kingdom but the first one is that the land belongs to families for instance in the forested area, the man who is able to cultivate the forest after planting, that area belongs to the man and so his family will continue to farm there, but as the family is expanding and so many cultivation of forested area then it will transfer from family to community in the whole town, the most important one is the family land, the community is the new extension because of the expansion, so as the family is expanding it becomes community land, that is the land tenure system.
Answer: In Ororokpe there all the land within the Ororokpe here and non communal belongs to the Okpe people because our fore fathers founded the land and the families has expanded and so if you are Okpeman you are part owner of the land in Ororokpe and the land is headed by the Orodje and the Orodje set up land committee to manage the land for the Okpe people but at the village level if you want to go and pick up a land, you will first of all find out who the owner of the land is the community or family land then you will approach people then they will sell the land for you and you can use it for your development.
Answer: We use to have A and PC sorry A and P African and timber ply wood in Sapele, we also had enternith we had some flour mills in Sapele, we have a number of sawmills around Sapele, Amukpe and is doing well some of these are still existing till today we have rubber factories also in those aras I have mentioned we have banks also in these communities including Orerekpe I don’t know if I am missing out any, we have palm produce fence at least may be medium scale and small scale in many communities including some villages where they have mills to produce not the manual though the manual is also still existing, palm oil production is still existing then we have some oil companies we have cell plant in Sapele we have Nepa power station in Sapele of Gorode, we also have where we distill local chips, these are some industry we have in the land.
Answer: Of course yes they do, the rubber factory for instance have a lot of raw materials around the Okpe kingdom because so many large rubber plantations, life rubber plantations exist in almost all the communities in Okpe kingdom and when you talk about the oil palm produce industry they are being fed with the natural first the natural palm is grown everywhere in Okpe land as well as the ones cultivated by individual, the saw mills are fed with timber from the land we have a lot of timber produce in Okpe kingdom.
Answer: Yes they are farmers and fishermen hunter
Answer: Yes we do, the Okpe kingdom like any other community kingdom not only the south south bu the south east, south west and the middle belt have this issue of herds men when we were growing up, some of them use to move round by the road side is not the type of the herbs men you see by the road today that are very hustile and arrogant in those days the herds men they know that cash crops people plant a lot of cassava and now the herds men they just go to the farm and destroy it and almost bringing conflict between the farmers and the herds men. It is a problem and it is also believe that the modern kidnapping, I say modern kidnapping because they are believe that kidnapping started from the Niger delta. So Niger delta sold kidnapping to the north and they have started it somewhere but kidnapping is very rambered here, it is known that even some of our people are also involve in the kidnapping. The herds men he said is the one that is very frighten to us.
Answer: In Okpe we have classification for death right we have the class of the very elderly Omomare, Imamaren or Omammaren that is somebody who is very very old. May be from 90s or 100s and something then we have Omirigwa, Omirigwa is about fifty something and above or may be 90 and above then we have Omoboba, we have Ugiuwen who are youth between 20 and 49, then we have Omoboba, these are very very young ones and usually when Omoboba pass on there are no ceremonies they are buried like that because they are too young to be celebrated it is too painful for anybody to say they wants to celebrated a tender person who just pass away. But for the Omomaren the elderly most elderly category they are well celebrated most times rights goes with it because some of them would have great, great, great grand children which we call Esakpgodi some we call Imamasema and Ugwumegbe that is children in 4th, 5th and 6th generations we usually celebrate them and they are, part of the celebration they are properly dressed in ceremonial attire and brought in for the funeral they have a special right they perform in the funeral ceremony and some cases in families or lineages where we celebrate old age and affluence here is what we call Akperen efije which is a kind of representation a celebration in which the deceased is properly represented in a ejije and it is also assumed that the spirit is invoked into the efije and the spirit comes to occupy the efije and directs the efije’s movement and those who bare it during the celebration the spirit directs their movement is wherever the spirits move them to go that they go and sometime the celebration is carried along the streets of the community, he or she directs the movement of the bearers to visit mostly the family members and his friends around the community before he comes back to settle in the counteract prepared for it at the arena for the funeral service.
Then as for death which is regarded as an abomination, may before I touch on that, there is a way our people classify death, there are death that we look at to be normal to be part of destiny may be one passes on at old age it is seen as the people is destined to pass on at such a time and so there is no course for alarm over that, though it will be painful to us no matter how old the person will be but as far as the person will be but as far as the person pass on at a very ripe old age it is seen as part of destiny and again death that is also regarded as peaceful is also seen as part of destiny because it is the desire of every elder and the believe of every elder in Okpe that most times if your heart is pure, your hands are clean you are likely to pass on in a most peaceful manner not in a horrible manner may be that is the reason why most of our elders prefer that they pass on while asleep with no indications of illness at all when the time comes he sleeps or she sleeps and passes on and that is regarded as peaceful passage. But there are some death that our people regard as, we describe it in Okpe as Iwuoran, unexpected death, it is usually very painful and very touchy and those are death like that occur in accidents somebody was never sick but just had accident and passes on and sometimes not that the person is old enough maybe a young person was never sick suddenly had an attack maybe heart attack and passes on it is tragic and unexpected it is very painful we classify such death as Iwuoran, death that also happens as a result of attack maybe assassination it is not what anybody envisage or planned for but somebody is just attack and somebody is hit by a straight bullet and passes on we refer to such as Iwuoran sudden death or unexpected death, but the abominable one is in different categories as well, it is considered abominable if any body dies in the bus, it is believe in Okpe that one who have a pure heart and clean hands would never die in the bush no matter the circumstance no matter the incidence even if one is in the bush and hit by a straight bullet he would still struggle to get home to get to the town or community before he breaths the last breath, if one falls from top of palm tree in the process of harvesting it may be the rope cut and may be something happened, the persons falls down from the top of the tree it is believe that if the persons heart is pure and hands are clean he would not die, he will still struggle to enter the community before he passes on but if the person eventually dies in the bush it is regarded as a taboo or abomination and therefore the person is buried in the bush, the person is not buried in the town or in the house but in the bush, those days leprosy also constituted an abominable death, if somebody is leprotic and dies as a result could not survive it, it is regarded as an abomination and such a person is buried in a nearby bush and not buried in the town or community for someone who dies in the river is buried by the river bank not necessary in the bush but by the river bank and for a woman who is pregnant and dies in the process of giving birth it is also considered to be abominable the person is buried also in the nearby bush not in town, another one would be one who has committed abominable act through witchcraft and successtory means unless the person confesses it, there are occasions where some people have refactory diseases infliated on them by diety and ancestral spirit as a result of the evil that they have done using those witchcraft and successtory powers and as a result those ailment do not yield to treatment that condition forces them to confess the evil deeds and after the confession they pass on, because they have confess they committed those abominable deeds they are not buried in towns or community we also mentioned suicide is also classified abominable.
Answer: As I told you earlier, the people and their language are named after their progenitor of Okpe, the language has been in existence for a very long time, as I told you we believe that this language existed before the birth of Christ, it was not a language that metamorphous from another like Urhobo, the Urhobo tune we are talking about or the Urhobo concept so many people do not understand that the Urhobo is a social political grouping of a certain people who live in a geographical area together for easy administration during the colonial era that was a social political grouping that brought not even just the Okpe and the other Urhobo people together it brought the Okpe, Agbarho, the Ibrum the Isoko and the Uwvie as well as even the Itskeri together long long ago before the Itshkeri succeeded the Itskeri were part of the grouping earlier and the Isoko succeeded and according to Otite it was on October 1st 1931 that these people came together to agree to say let us refer to ourselves as Urhobo because when the grouping was made the colonial masters were calling them sobor how that originated we do not know but if you have read kubad and brabery they usually said that sobor is not the name of any ethnic group but it was just a courage to refer to people of different ethnic background that have being brought together because they share similar customs and they live in a common geographical location.
Answer: What I will say is most unique to the Okpe kingdom is the chieftaincy attire which is petended incidentally we have seen that some other kingdom are trying to occupy it already, some kingdom around us are designing their chieftaincy attire in like manners inspite of the fact that ours is petended but is very unique. Our traditional chieftaincy attires are very very unique with broad red cape design with beads not the one the ecarcurous are wearing now.
When you talk about something very unique there is a special dance in Okpe that dance, the dance is only peculiar to Okpe and it is dance during burial ceremony of elderly people and I have not seen it anywhere in Urhobo land, I also believe that ema dance is peculiar to Okpe but so many other tribes of Delta central and Delta south are also doing ema dance but it was legally an Okpe dance and it is dance during ceremonies, chieftaincy title in fact it is a royal dance. When they are dancing ema you see they bring wealth to your self but when they are dancing Iwe you remove poverty from yourself, sadness from yourself you do your hands like that. Well it is a way we greet our king but other people also copy it but in Delta central when you say whoyowho their saying orovie is our king, but the way they greet our king is umuko when you say umuko they know the orodje of Okpe is there is peculiar to Okpe but the Uwvie people also copied it.
The typical Okpe man in the village when he speak Urhobo you won’t understand like my daughter she understands Okpe but when you speak Urhobo she doesn’t understand but most us who grew with our fathers and have stayed other places we can understand Urhobo. Urhobo people don’t understand us, when a typical Okpe man speaks you don’t understand like we said the Okpe man and Akokoedo we have similarity with their language when we say Owu they also say owu, if we say eva they say eva, you see so we are still going to send people to search what is the link of the Okpe and the Akokoedo and also most Esan if they speak and put your ear closely to them you see they speak like Okpe. So our own is peculiar, so we can say one people, one language and one tune Okpe kingdom have a lot of tourism potentials that can attracts tourist in this our territory, one of them is adanikpe cultural festival, if you come here when is the coronation, anniversary ceremonies you see Okpe culture they display which is different from others we also have our masquerade different kinds of masquerade we have occupational dances and cultural dances which is a means of entertainment they are quit different the way we do our own ema dance is also different we also have our quizzes one peculiar quizzes in Okpe kingdom is Igbagba is different from the way they prepare it in Okpe different from other culture, some of them may have what they call Iribotor but our own is Igbagba and the way we prepare our own ukodo is also different from the way others prepare it, then we have mangrove swamps we have some the best clay in this country so is our tourism potential, we have our water ways, if you go to the ethiope river is one of the clearest water around this area our mangrove swamps that we use to produce native salt from the mangrove swamp so this are areas that tourist can come, we have very beautiful vegetation ever green vegetation then our water ways are also clear and safe there are no pirates in our water ways that tourist want to have a natural feel of the Niger Delta environment, they can come here we lived in a territory where a land mark can swallow a deep swamp and the up land so we are neither deep swamp we are too much in upland, we just give just a geographical feel so we have comfortable and convenient weather throughout the year even during the peak of the harmattan our weather is not so harsh sometimes during the harmattan you can find rain, so you see our environment is very conducive for tourist to come.
The features of the Okpe people I think in the whole of delta state basically any king that have a kingdom that spreads over two local government area in the kingdom, but the Okpe people spread over 2 local government area indeed we have some part of our kingdom in ethiope east and in Uwvie Okpe people are there just as you have some people in Edo state and the rest of it. That is very unique of us too I think when we talk about these tourism when we go to entertainment we have very many kind of music that we can actually hap on in terms of tourism infact we have some tourism theatres or performance we have the midiaca dance troop, am sure you must have heard of the midiaca dance troop wealso have the agalokpe dance troop these are not just a music in communities known they are commercialized they move from one place to another then we have the Okpe disco performance that we have in different place you can also invite them or employ their services anytime you need their performances. These are tourism potentials in Okpe kingdom, you can still even get more than that.
We have a lot of festivals that have difference features apart from ekinike we have iyoremen festival that features different masquerades in marije we also have the one in orehama we have the ediprodel youth annual festival which features different masquerade representing different deities that inhabit the waters that also manifest in various forms because the Okpe people believe that, that some certain diety inhabit the water and also exhibit some control over some of activities and the affairs of men we have the Igba festival of ekiresan all these are different festival that features various kinds of manifestation of spirit, powers of deities and what we refer generally as spirit manifest.
Abduction in this case is when a man and a woman is leaving together without a proper introduction of marriage.
Adultery in Okpe kingdom is a taboo, once a woman is properly married not that you are still co-abiting because there are still children involve she is not a wife, when you dowry a woman in your house if the woman goes to have sex outside is adultery in Okpe the man does not commit adultery because you are allowed to marry as many wives as you can, so adultery itself is a taboo in natural sense, it is believe that if a woman commits adultery and she does not confess to the husband the day she goes to deliver a child she cannot deliver unless she confesses, the child will never come unless the woman confesses, even adultery not only because through sex, talking to the woman in a way you want to have sex with her or holding her hands is adultery if she does not confess so far that the man involve will pay damages to the husband, you talk about stealing every society does not recognize stealing. Stealing is a taboo, anyone who steals you will not want to get closer to such person, if you are a thief nobody wants to associates with you. infact if a thief comes to your house you are not comfortable you will want to come to the town.
Abduction yes people will just carry your daughter carry your daughter away, if you carry the girl away without paying bride price on my own if anything happens you cannot come and talk to the parents that anything happens to the girl, we have seen cases when you move to the girl and something happen like death or the girl dies you will come and talk to the parents, the parents will not listen to you, because they don’t know you as an inlaw, an inlaw performs a lot of rights during burial, son law, that is why during bride price they will refund some money back to you telling you that you have not finish payment, you will continue to pay throughout your life time. Anything that happens in the family they will send for you, during the burial of your father or mother inlaw, there are certain rights you will perform, if you do not pay your wife dowry you cannot come you will have to sit under visitor.
The other taboos in Okpe, it is forbidden in Okpe for you to have sex with a woman under her period or for you to have sex in the bush is a taboo.
Answer: The Okpe union is the most powerful and most recognized social cultural group in Okpe kingdom and it has branches around the world not only in Nigeria there are branches different states in the country there are branches in different cities and different part of the world even in US and UK. The Okpe union was founded in 1930s the Okpe union and the other union in cross river they are the oldest union in Nigeria before you talk about adaze, arogba, anifere, these are the two oldest union in Nigeria and it is registered.
Answer: Thank you people recommend then Prof. Idawore you are talking about he struggled for the stool in Okpe Olomu on the demise of Igbose, that alone would lead to serious conflict because of the peaceful disposition of the Okpe people, the rightful owner of the thrown which is Okpe, he said okay if you want take the thrown am leaving so we are peaceful people we have peace in short when shell was operating in Sapele Sapele use to be the peaceful community in the whole place where shell was operating we are peaceful people but sometimes people take us for granted because we are peaceful people, shell office for instance because we don’t agitate, we don’t break their pipes we don’t stop their production and what is due to us to the community they don’t give it to us because we don’t agitate we don’t demonstrate so they take advantage of that and because the way the kingdom is organize I can keep a tap for what is happening and our people have a lot of respect for the throne, they say orodje don’t want it this way, they will listen, thought they can be some deviance generally the people have a lot of respect for the throne and because I believe we cannot get development without peace, so we preach peace every time and you know in those days, the king has both executives, legislative and judiciary power all those things have been taken over by government so what we have now is a stilt why so even if I want to maintain peace I will make sure there is peace in my community is just to liaze with the security agency and have that good rapour with them I just mean to maintain peace. But generally we are peaceful people and my people love peace, thank you very much.