There is crisis presently between the Okumagba royal family of Okere-Urhobo kingdom and the family of Emmanuel Oritsejolomi Uduaghan, the “elema” of Warri kingdom over the alleged grabbing of over 30 hectares of land belonging to the Okumagba family in Warri, Delta State.
According to the Okumagba royal family, Uduaghan, a high-ranking chief and custodian of tradition, and also appointee of the Olu of Warri, for the past 10 years has used top officials of the Governor Ifeanyi Okowa led government to intimidate and arrest one of their sons, Louis Okumagba, who is at the forefront of the land dispute.
Speaking with SaharaReporters on behalf of the Okumagba royal family, Louis Okumagba said, “The said land is opposite Don Domingo College in the heart of Warri acquired from the Okumagba family by the then government of Bendel State before the creation of Delta State and since a larger portion of the land has not been used for public purposes for which it was acquired, I applied for a part of it to be released to him and it was then that the elema of Warri kingdom, Emmanuel Oritsejolomi Uduaghan surfaced from nowhere to lay claim to the land.
“It was on a portion of the land that the Delta State School of Nursing and Delta State Board of Internal Revenue headquarters are located close to the College of Education, Warri. My application was already granted and the Certificate of Occupancy about to be issued when Emmanuel Oritsejolomi Uduaghan stepped in to fraudulently lay claim to the land, bribing his way through to compromise some officials of the state ministry of land, survey and urban development who confirmed that Emmanuel Oritsejolomi Uduaghan has no valid C of O and title to the land and that their hands were tied.
“Emmanuel Oritsejolomi Uduaghan was parading four different C of Os with questionable numbers and particulars, and none of the C of Os in his possession has been confirmed to have originated from the state ministry of land and survey. I applied for the land in 2016 and everything was approved because what I applied for was just 10 acres of land. The commissioner office, through one Joshua Ekakitie wrote a letter to the zonal area planning officer and surveyor in the Ministry in Warri, directing them to carry out a joint inspection of the said land for due diligence check and report back to the ministry. Their report was thereafter sent to Asaba and approval was given for the land to be allocated to me.
“But as soon these government officials in Okowa government, Okowa’s director of protocols, Ifeanyi Eboigbe, former commissioner for lands and survey and PDP candidate for Ndokwa East constituency in the forthcoming 2023 house of Assembly election, Chika Ossai, the Isoko North PDP chairman and chairman of the state land use Act, Godwin Ogorugba and some staff of the state ministry of land I had cried to and earlier promised to assist us get our land back went behind us and got bribed with parcels, they turned against us and have covered up and ceded the land to Emmanuel Oritsejolomi Uduaghan. These are officials who know that the land belongs to us.”
As at the time of filing in this report, all calls and messages put to the “elema” of Warri kingdom, Emmanuel Oritsejolomi Uduaghan for reactions were not responded to.
Meanwhile, the governor’s director of protocols, Ifeanyi Eboigbe, the PDP candidate for Ndokwa East constituency in the forthcoming 2023 house of Assembly election, Chika Ossai and the chairman of the state land use Act, Godwin Ogorugba, all denied the allegations, describing it as baseless and unfounded.
