The Alema of Warri Kingdom, Chief Emmanuel Uduaghan, has urged a prominent monarch in Delta State to comply with the judgment in Chief Ayomanor v. Ginuwa, 11 JELR 81222 (W.A.C.A), which confines his activities to the 510 acres granted.

His comment comes amid a foundation-laying ceremony of a sub-palace by the monarch in a kingdom in Delta State.

Uduaghan said the issue of the ownership of Sapele by the Itsekiri nation had been corroborated by the Intelligence Report of the colonial authority as far back as 1930 on the Okpe Sobo Clan, in which all Okpe villages, sub-clans and communities were listed.

Uduaghan, the administrator of Ugbekoko, Utonyatsere, Ajimele, Aji Dore, Irakpa and other notable Itsekiri communities within Sapele, under the overlordship of the Olu of Warri, Atuwatse III, argued that the judgment in Chief Ayomanor v. Ginuwa, 11 JELR 81222 (W.A.C.A), which the traditional ruler’s family often relies on to claim ownership of Sapele, does not in fact confer ownership of Sapele on their family.

His words: “I sincerely hope that the proposed foundation-laying ceremony of the sub-palace by the monarch is within the said 510 acres granted to them in the judgment of Chief Ayomanor v. Ginuwa, 11 JELR 81222 (W.A.C.A), as anything outside this will be far-reaching and would be an invitation to communal crisis, and this will be resisted by every legal means possible.

“The Intelligence Report by L.E.A. Fellows listed their notable villages as Amukpe, Elume, Orerokpe and Gbukurusu. The judgment in Chief Ayomanor v. Ginuwa, 11 JELR 81222 (W.A.C.A), did not grant ownership of Sapele to them. Rather, it granted 510 acres of land to the Okpes. The area of land granted is well known. Sapele is not the exclusive town of the Okpe people. Sapele, from time immemorial, belongs to the Itsekiri people.”