Okpe Union Writes Seplat: Caution Abigborodo Itsekiri Community Over Statement

PRESS RELEASE

RE: AN OPEN LETTER (ON ABIGBORODO CLAIMS OF INTERESTS IN SAPELE SEPLAT OIL WELLS )

The attention of the Okpe Union National Executive Council has been brought to the open letter on page 24 in the Vanguard Newspaper of today, 18th, June 2021 which was signed by one Shedrack M. Demake Esq. on behalf of Abigborodo Itsekiri Communities to the Management of Seplat Petroleum Development Company claiming to have interests in the oil wells in OML 41 of Sapele Community in Sapele LGA and Okpe Kingdom of Delta State. The National leadership of the Okpe Union has mandated the office of the National Publicity Secretary of Union to react as follows:

That the publication at best is a calculated attempt to mislead the unassuming public and possibly cause disaffection between the peaceful and loving people of Okpe ethnic nationality and our itshekiri neighbors.

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 Oil 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 the purpose of 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. 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.

Signed:

Mrs. Atarhe Abuh, Publicity Secretary,
Okpe Union.