By Mudiaga Affe
The National Executive Council of Okpe Union has kicked against the interest by some Itsekiri communities to bid for oil wells, OML 41, in Sapele community, Sapele Local Government Area of Delta State-owned by Seplat Petroleum Development Company.

The Okpe Union, in reaction to an open letter in a national daily newspaper of June 18, 2021, by Shedrack Demake, on behalf of Abigborodo Itsekiri communities to the management of Seplat, said the publication is a calculated attempt to mislead the unassuming public and possibly cause disaffection between the peaceful and loving people of Okpe ethnic nationality and its Itsekiri neighbors.

In a statement on Friday by its Publicity Secretary, Mrs. Atarhe Abuh, the Okpe Union stated that the Abigborodo people cannot claim an interest in an oil well that is not within their community.

It stated, “Whenever a person or group of persons feel aggrieved that their rights have been infringed upon anytime and in this instance of Abigborodo community, allegedly for several decades and counting by another person be it human person, artificial person or otherwise, the proper legal option to take is to seek legal redress in a democracy like Nigeria.

“If the Abigborodo people who are not from Sapele Local Government Area, an area owned exclusively by the Okpe people of Delta State feel that Seplat which legally took over the interests in Shell Petroleum Development Company over the oil wells of Sapele LGA deem it that their exclusion by Shell and now Seplat from the oil wells of Sapele LGA deprives them of any of their legal rights, the proper action for them to take is not sundry publications of propaganda materials, but to approach the ordinary courts to seek redress.

“For clarity, the Okpe people of the two local government areas of Sapele and Okpe do not have land boundaries with the Abigborodo people and the Itsekiris at large. The boundary between Abigborodo and Sapele is the Benin Creek over which the Uduaghan Abigborodo Bridge was constructed.

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“That bridge is also the boundary between Warri North and Sapele Local Government Area on the Abigborodo side. That Benin Creek also known as the Hole in the Wall Creek which runs past Ugbukurusu, Elume(in same Sapele LGA) up to Erogho and Ugbokodo of Okpe LGA where there is Omadino Bridge, are the boundaries between Itsekiri land and Okpe land.

“Abigborode, therefore, cannot rationally claim any ownership of nor interests in any land on the Sapele Local Government Area side of the Benin Creek.”