The Okpe Interest Group has defended Sapele’s territorial status, describing it as ancestral Okpe land, amid controversy surrounding the proposed foundation laying of an Okpe Sub Palace in Sapele, Delta State.
In a statement signed by Comrade Ejomafume Akpomevine, the group dismissed a recent publication credited to Chief Emmanuel Oritsejolomi Uduaghan, the Alema of Warri Kingdom, describing it as a distortion of history capable of inflaming ethnic tensions.
The group maintained that Sapele predates colonial administration as Okpe land and insisted that the Okpe people are indigenous to the town, not settlers or tenants.
It identified Hole Creek along the Benin River, near the Sapele/Abigborodo Bridge, as the long-recognised boundary between Okpe and Itsekiri territories, warning against attempts to reinterpret historical boundaries.
The group argued that colonial intelligence reports were administrative tools and did not transfer indigenous land ownership, stressing that no document ceded Sapele to the Itsekiri.
It also rejected interpretations of the judgment in Chief Ayomano v. Ginuwa II that allegedly diminished Okpe territorial rights, insisting the ruling neither declared Sapele Itsekiri land nor extinguished Okpe ownership.
Reaffirming the authority of the Orodje of Okpe Kingdom over Okpe land, including Sapele, the group described the proposed sub-palace as an internal cultural initiative.
While restating its commitment to peaceful coexistence, the group warned that tolerance should not be mistaken for a surrender of ancestral rights and urged traditional institutions to promote harmony.
