Not many were surprised over recent moves by the Ovie of Oghara, His Royal Highness Noble Eshemitan’s parlous claim of ownership over all that vest land stretching from Ajagbodudu to Nanna Camp in Koko. This recent claim has shown that Ethiope west which Oghara is the headquarter has over night extended its boundary with Warri North to Nanna Camp in Koko, headquarters of Warri North Local Government Area, thus leaving the historical Jackson line, Ajagbodudu, Ogbogelete and Obite-Ugbo subsumed in Oghara kingdom.
Reports have it that this was not the first time the people of Oghara had and would laid frivolous claim of ownership over Ajagbodudu. But, it was the time an Oghara king was solely by himself determining where should be the boundary between Ethiope West and Warri North beyond the historical Jackson Line which was a route created by the British colonial administrators in official gazette and had since been recognized as boundary line between the Itsekiris of Ajagbodudu and the Urhobos of Oghara.
The Itsekiris of Ajagbodudu have been attacked and the community raised down by the Urhobos of Oghara several times on account of this before Chief James Ibori and Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan were voted governors of the state respectively. It was also gathered that though there hadn’t been any attack on Ajagbodudu at the time both Ex governors who were maternally and paternally related to the Itsekiris presided over the state, yet the Urhobos had not abandoned their unsubstantiated claim of ownership over Ajagbodudu.
What was however surprising was that His Highness Noble Eshemitan himself led the delegation of Chiefs beyond Jackson line, through Ajagbodudu and Obite –Ugbo to Nanna Camp in Koko and granted interviews to journalists and claimed that the people of Oghara own the vast land extending from Oghara-eki to Nanna camp. The monarch and his Chief did not consider possible counter reaction in the form of attack from the people of Koko. Many had seen this as too careless of a king.
Sources that spoke to Warrimirror confirmed that the people of Oghara were not happy that a Military Amphibious Barrack was going to be built on the expanse of land already gifted to the military for that purpose by the Olu of Warri and the people of Koko. The intention of the Oghara Monarch was to frustrate the project through dispute. Hence, his frivolous claim of ownership over that part of Koko when the people of Oghara never won a single case in the long years of litigation between them and the people of Ajagbodudu.
The source further added that it was laughable that the people of Oghara who had failed in several claims over Ajagbodud had to lay claim over Nanna Camp in Koko when Ajagbodudu and Obite Ugbo are undisputed Itsekiri communities till date.
Our sources opined that the Ovie of Oghara and his people took the joke too far, and that there was no time Ajagbodud, Obite Ugbo and now Nanna camp were part of Oghara Kingdom.
