By Olayinka Ajayi

The people of Ukpedi Kingdom in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State have disclaimed a kinsman who allegedly referred to himself as the Ovie of the kingdom.

In a letter addressed to Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan and copied to the deputy governor, Prof. Amos Agbe Utuama (SAN), and the governor elect, Senator Dr. Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa, and signed by representatives of the kingdom, the Ofuevu and Olorogun Wilson Macaulay, the Oghweta, the community, explained that HRM T.E.M Oviri (J.P) Ugo Okwagbe I is the Ovie of Ukpedi Kingdom and as such all relevant authorities should disregard the kinsman’s claim to the kingship.

The letter read: “We the undersigned are the principal members/representatives of the various towns and villages that constitute Ukpedi Kingdom in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State. Our attention has been drawn to a publication wherein one of our natives referred to himself as the Ovie of Ukpedi Kingdom. Your Excellency, we wish to state without any fear of contradiction that Ukpedi people vide a Notice of Emergency General Meeting, dated 11th day of December, 2000, through Ukpedi Union, invited five persons from each community within Ukpedi Union for a meeting fixed for 17th December, 2000. The meeting, held on the said date at Imode Town Hall, was attended by who is who from the entire communities within the Ukpedi Kingdom

. At the meeting, it was unanimously resolved that Ukpedi sub-clan of Ughievwen should become a substantive kingdom of its own. In the same vein, the union resolved that Ukpedi Kingdom should be headed by an Ovie (king). The union unanimously resolved that Chief T.E.M Oviri [JP] should be elevated from the position of Senior Otota of Ukpedi, a position he had been holding since 17th April, 1999, to the position of the Ovie of Ukpedi Kingdom. In the same meeting, it was also resolved that Chief Thompson Apah, who is the present Otota of Ukpedi Kingdom, should be elevated to the position of Senior Otota of Ukpedi Kingdom.

After the said meeting, there were serious consultations with the heads of the various communities and traditional structures/institutions within Ukpedi Kingdom and, at the end of the exercise, Chief T.E.M Oviri JP was, in a well attended and publicized General Meeting of the Ukpedi Clan held at Eyara Town, the ancestral home of the Ukpedi people, coronated on the 21st day of August 2013 as HRM T.E.M Oviri JP, Ugo Okwagbe 1, the Ovie of Ukpedi Kingdom.Since the entire kingdom coronated our said Ovie, he has been functioning as such to the admiration and general acceptability of the Ukpedi Kingdom.”