WARRI/Nigeria: The Abigborodo community has firmly restated its ownership of Ugbekoko, Uton Iyatsere and all lands constituting the PPL 220 oil field, describing recent claims by leaders of the Sapele Okpe community as unfounded, misleading and unsupported by history or law.
In a detailed position paper, the Chairman of the Abigborodo Management Committee, Hon. Misan Ukubeyinje, faulted assertions circulated on an online media platform which urged the Federal Ministry of Environment, oil companies and government authorities to disregard Abigborodo’s claim and alter the long-established name of PPL 220.
Ukubeyinje said the claims lacked legal basis and were historically inaccurate, stressing that Abigborodo remains the rightful owner of the oil field and adjoining communities. He maintained that the assertions were not backed by any verifiable documentary evidence.
According to him, colonial records obtained from the National Archives in Ibadan and referenced in correspondence by Chief Emmanuel Oritsejolomi Uduaghan, the Alema of Warri Kingdom, clearly establish Abigborodo’s ownership of Ugbekoko and Uton Iyatsere. He said the documents include judicial proceedings and official investigations conducted by British colonial authorities, which upheld the claims of Abigborodo leaders.
Ukubeyinje further noted that Itsekiri communities such as Abigborodo, Obotie, Aruwun, Ogorode, Ajimele, Ogwanja and Aja-Ojigwo were aboriginal settlements in Sapele long before the migration of the Okpe people from Orerokpe in the early 1900s. He cited colonial intelligence reports documenting Okpe migration between 1900 and 1907, pointing out that Sapele had already emerged as a British colonial administrative and commercial centre by 1891.
He also referenced a 1940 judgment of a colonial magistrate court which discharged Abigborodo farmers accused of trespass within the Okpe-Sobo forest reserve, as well as protest letters written in the 1930s by the Olu of Warri and the Alema of Warri, all of which were investigated and upheld by the colonial administration.
Dismissing arguments that Abigborodo land does not extend into Sapele Local Government Area, Ukubeyinje explained that administrative and political boundaries created for governance purposes do not extinguish ancestral land ownership, which predates local government creation and even Nigeria as a sovereign nation.
He added that the 2021 Judicial Panel of Enquiry into the Okpe-Urhobo forest reserve recognised Ugbekoko, Obotie and Aja-Ojigwo as Itsekiri communities and affirmed Uton Iyatsere as an Itsekiri settlement.
Expressing concern over reports of a closed-door meeting allegedly involving the Delta State Commissioner for Oil and Gas, Navante Exploration and Production Limited and representatives of the Sapele Okpe community, Ukubeyinje said such a development, if true, would amount to institutional bias. He questioned the authority of any government official to direct the renaming of a long-established and gazetted oil field.
He maintained that extensive research, independent investigations and stakeholder consultations preceded the naming of PPL 220, adding that no individual or agency has the legal power to alter its name.
Ukubeyinje insisted that the PPL 220 oil field lies entirely within Abigborodo land, that those directly impacted by oil operations are Abigborodo people of Itsekiri extraction, and described the Sapele Okpe claim as trespass.
He therefore called on the Minister of Environment, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, the Delta State Government and other relevant authorities to disregard the claims of the Sapele Okpe community and uphold the position of the Alema of Warri Kingdom on the rightful ownership and naming of the PPL 220 oil field.
