Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, South-South

SINCE November 29, 2011, when he fled  his kingdom, Uzere, in Isoko South Local Government Area of Delta State, after his palace was razed by  irate mob,  His Royal Majesty, Isaac Udogri I, the Ovie of Uzere,  has not stepped his feet into the kingdom. Reason: He has been on forced exile in Warri. But his pursuers did not leave him alone, last month, January, 15, 2012, he was purportedly dethroned by a section of his subjects, who, he told Sunday Vanguard, had not only sent him death threats on phone, but also deployed assassins after him. What exactly is the problem or are the problems  in Uzere?

Sunday Vanguard located  the paramount ruler’s temporal place of refuge with the help of  some loyal chiefs,  and, for the first time since the current Uzere cataclysm exploded, three months back, he opened up.  The monarch radiated on the grounds for the tumult, the brain behind the machinations and the politics of it all. Excerpt:

Can we know what is happening in Uzere kingdom. The story is that you have been deposed by your subjects?
First and foremost, those people who claim they deposed the Ovie have no right to depose an Ovie.  By Uzere tradition, if an Ovie has not joined his ancestors, another one cannot be installed, they know it, it is very clear, they are only fooling themselves. They have no power by the tradition of Uzere to depose an Ovie.

Genesis
Let me go back to the beginning of the crisis in my community, Uzere.  Now, the crisis in Uzere community is political, there is one mad dog, one mad man (namewithheld) , he has the ambition to be a member of the House of Assembly; it had been for a very for long time, he set up a private army, and the army has been working. Anybody who is against his ideology, he will use the army to fight that person.

That is what he had been doing all until the year, 2008, precisely around the month of Ocotober when he used that his army to kidnap three staff of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, SNEPC, and it took us a long time to secure their release.

Now, for you to know that he was the one who sent them and that he was the one controlling that private army, when the kidnappers contacted me on phone and I told them, “please, release the Shell staff immediately”, they complained that they had spent a lot of money in taking care of the hostages and I asked them how much and, they said N25,000, I said, I would pay but asked how do I get the money across to them.

HRM Udogri I

They told me to give the money to the chief. I  immediately sent for the chief and he came, I told him the boys said they had spent N25,000 in maintaining the people they kidnapped, that they needed their money back and I asked them, how you get your money back, that they said I should give it to him, he said yes, I was shocked. I went in, counted the N25, 000 and I gave the money to the chief. If he denies it, two of us will swear. He took the money away. In less than one hour, the boys called me that they had received the money and  thanked me. From that, what you deduce, is that the chief is connected with the kidnappers.

Torture chamber
After that one, there are some boys who do not like his ideology in Uzere. He sent his boys –  this private army – to capture them, carred them a public hall, naked them and the boys will begin to slice the bodies  of these people they arrested and pour Ogogoro on them. The video of this action is with the police. Now, when these things became too much, the local government council was not happy and a meeting of the peace and security committee of the local government council was summoned, luckily, I am a member, and the issue was raised.

The chairman of the council, the DPO, the SSS and other members, myself, we decided that every vigilante group in the whole local government be disbanded because of all these private activities and the DPO was directed to reorganize the vigilante groups in all the communities.

My troubles with kidnapping  baron
Since the group and others were disbanded, the chief took me as an enemy and he swore that he would fight me to the finish. He said I dismantled the instrument he was using to fight for his job; then last year, the issue of election to the Delta State House of Assembly came up. He contested the primaries in his party and lost, then he crossed to another party and even came to me boldly, saying I should tell the town crier to make public announcement that everybody should vote for him in the community  but I refused.

He left in annoyance and since that time, every evening, he would gather people, they would be dancing and creating the feeling that I am the one that was going to make him lose election. He lost the election. After that, it turned to a battle and almost on a daily basis, I summon meetings to advise them. Then he went to tribunal and lost.

Immediately thereafter, he said I gave his opponent who is from another community N5 million to execute the tribunal case against him. His supporters foolishly came to me to tell me and requested for N5 million for him and I told them I didn’t have. It was after that movement by his supporters that the issue  that they wanted to protest against Shell, last year, came up.

Gang-up
Precisely, on  November 28,  2011, I heard that the community want to protest and I said if the community wanted to protest, I must be aware, I should coordinate it, all of us should agree, myself and all my chiefs should agree; so I summoned a meeting of all the administrative organs in Uzere. When they came, I threw the matter open. I said I learnt there would be protest tomorrow in Uzere, are you people aware?

They said they were called somewhere for a meeting and when they were told, they asked if I had been informed, and they said they would inform me; and right at the meeting, they were asking me if I had not been informed. I said nobody informed me. In that meeting, their opinion was that we should forget about the protest. I said no, they held a meeting with them in secret, they didn’t want me to know, they had a reason.

If they wanted to protest, that was their headache, I had no hand, but any protest that was not coordinated, such protest was bound to end in trouble because they would not be able to control the youths. I said the best thing for us to do is to go into dialogue with any oil company  operating in our land and the meeting ended.

Invasion
The following morning, I was  supposed to travel to Abuja, but I cancelled it. These people went to the flow station and ordered that it should be shut down. Normally, after shutting the flow station, they were supposed to come back, but they decided to go inside to destroy the place, they burnt down their vehicles and overpowered the police and the police asked for reinforcement.

Now they accused me that I asked for reinforcment, that I asked for the Joint Task Force, JTF, on the Niger-Delta to come and it was the JTF I brought that killed two persons. If I asked for JTF to protect Shell installation, am I not supposed to ask for JTF to come and protect my palace? If you ask the police, they will confirm to you that it was the DPO that asked for reinforcement because they were about killing him. Now, they burnt down my palace.

Why did they burn down your palace?
They are claiming that the soldiers I asked to come to the flow station killed two boys and, for that reason, they burned the palace. But meanwhile, there were other reasons they were giving. One is that Shell gave me a large sum of money for the community and I embezzled it, now they are no longer saying it, two is that I gave N5 million to the opponent of their community man. These ones they are not holding it again, what they are holding now is that I arrested the president general and chairman of the community.

I lost everything
When I came into Warri, I decided that I was leaving the whole thing to God, let God judge them because everything I had in my life was burnt and I was renovating the palace at that time, I spent close to N30 million renovating my palace and my cars. I had expensive cars, they burnt all of them down.

Assassins
After staying about two weeks, I discovered that they were sending assassins running after me in Warri, they were sending me text messages, they wrote petition against me to EFCC. I then said no, I will not leave the matter to God alone, let me write  petition to governemnt and I wrote to the Presidency, I wrote to the National Security Adviser, NSA, and he directed the Inspector General of Police to go into action and, based on that, they were arrested. When they were arrested, they were taken to Abuja, there was wahala, “eh, Ovie, what do we do?

We will settle? I said, let them settle. Since I had agreed  that we should settle, when they were going behind the scene to make arrangement to bail them, my lawyer was trying to block them, I said no, if you you block the bail, they will say I have deceived them on settlement, allow them, any  means they want to use to bail themselves, allow them. After they had been bailed, the wahala of dethronement came up, eh, we have dethroned the king”, but they know they cannot do it.

The devil
That is the core of the matter, the problem is politics and the root cause is the chief, he is the devil in that community. Now,  since he borrowed a lot of money for politics and he used his houses as collateral he used the people to worry Shell so that if Shell pays money, he will be able to take money from behind to settle his debt.

Ovie cannot be deposed
Normally, once Ovie of Uzere is installed, he cannot be deposed unless he joins the ancestors. Let me give you an example, His Royal Majesty, Etuede II, who was  my predecessor, was on the throne for some years before Uzere people said they didn’t want him and one Mr.  German Odede in 1956.

Now, the case started, from 1956,  the case went on for more than 20 years up to Supreme Court ,which held that from all available records pertaining to the stool of Uzere kingdom,  a reigning Ovie cannot be dethroned unless he joins the ancestors. So, German could not be Ovie and this man Etuede II ruled till he joined the ancestors. So by the tradition of Uzere community, if the Ovie did not join the ancestors, another one cannot be installed.

You were likened to King Nebuchadenezzer and described as authoritarian, wicked and proud by your subjects. Anybody who knows me know that I am not  proud, authoritarian, arrogant or  cast in the mould of King Nebuchadenezzer . Those people are aimless, useless, people who do not have idea about leadership.

Well, the state government intervened promptly from the beginning of the crisis. The House of Assembly passed a resolution that a judicial panel of inquiry and the governor did what the lawmakers directed. The inquiry is on and what the state decides, we will take.

Have you visited Uzere since  you fled the town?
Since November 29, 2011, I have not gone back to the kingdom; my house was burnt, where do I stay?