Abigborodo restates its ownership of Ugbekoko, Uton Iyatsere all lands under PPL 220 Oil Field- Ukubeyinje
**Dismisses claims by leaders of Sapele Okpe Community, describing it as legally unsubstantiated
Abigborodo community has restated its ownership of Ugbekoko, Uton Iyatsere and all lands constituting the PPL 220 oil field, dismissing recent claims by leaders of the Sapele Okpe community as unfounded and misleading.
In a detailed position paper by the Chairman of 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 described the claims as legally unsubstantiated, historically inaccurate and unsupported by verifiable documentary evidence, insisting that Abigborodo remains the rightful owner of the oil field and the adjoining communities.
He said colonial records obtained from the National Archives in Ibadan and referenced in correspondence by Emmanuel Oritsejolomi Uduaghan, the Alema of Warri Kingdom, clearly establish Abigborodo’s ownership of Ugbekoko and Uton Iyatsere. According to him, these records include judicial proceedings and official investigations carried out by British colonial authorities which upheld the claims of Abigborodo leaders.
The Abigborodo chairman 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 which documented the Okpe migration between 1900 and 1907, stressing that Sapele had already been established as a British colonial administrative and commercial centre by 1891.
He further referred to the 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 by the Olu of Warri and the Alema of Warri in the 1930s, all of which were investigated and upheld by the colonial administration.
Ukubeyinje dismissed arguments that Abigborodo land does not extend into Sapele Local Government Area, explaining that administrative or political boundaries created for governance purposes do not extinguish ancestral land ownership, which predates the creation of local governments and even Nigeria as a sovereign nation.
He also cited the 2021 Judicial Panel of Enquiry into the Okpe-Urhobo forest reserve, which recognised Ugbekoko, Obotie and Aja-Ojigwo as Itsekiri communities and affirmed Uton Iyatsere as an Itsekiri settlement.
Raising concerns 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 an action, if true, amounted to institutional bias. He questioned the authority of any government official to direct the renaming of a long-established and gazetted oil field.
Hon. Ukubeyinje maintained that extensive research, independent investigations and stakeholder consultations were conducted before 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 to be 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.
