{"id":24134,"date":"2020-03-19T21:24:41","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T21:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=24134"},"modified":"2020-03-19T21:29:59","modified_gmt":"2020-03-19T21:29:59","slug":"ekpan-people-and-their-inuevworo-by-omafume-amurun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=24134","title":{"rendered":"Ekpan People and Their Inuevworo  By Omafume Amurun"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=19271&amp;ad_type=81&amp;rl=1800\" width=\"336\" height=\"280\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>There are various versions about how the people of Ekpan got here but what is common in all the narratives is that one Izegbo, was the first person to immigrate to the present day Ekpan. This narrative did not say whether Izegbo came with his family.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>One version says <\/strong>Izegbo and his Warrior teams were on the run from Uvwierorho(Effurun-otor). That was the period when Ogoni, one of the sons of Ovie Eruowho was alleged to have murdered his brother Ovwaro Eruowho and took over the reins of power in Effurun-otor. Some of the Izegbo teams didn&#8217;t stay permanently in Ekpan, they continued their journey until they got to where they could no longer move forward and they called the place Madjebarhe(which mean we can no longer run) which is the present Edjeba.<\/p>\n<p>There is another version which says\u00a0Izegbo was a fugitive son of the Oba of Benin who escaped to Ekpan after he was declared wanted by the Oba for unexplained crime. Izegbo was said to have strange mystical powers. He was met by Okwefe and Ikporo when they escaped from Uvwierorho during the tyrannical rule Ogoni Eruowho.<\/p>\n<p>Over several decades there were inter-marriages between the original Uvwie people with their neighbours. That is why today we have several families in Ekpan with mixed parentage<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, how Eyaye and Edjekuvwie become first ruling houses in Ekpan has various controversial versions. One version claims that Edjekuvwe rose to prominent through intrigues and murder. He became the first Unuevworo of Ekpan, but he never formally took title as a chief.<\/p>\n<p>That version is disputed by those who say Eyaye, the matriarch was a powerful trader and very wealthy and was the key to the Unuevworoship of Ekpan. She was reported to have used her wealth to promote the interest of her family with most of her children marrying loyalties from the neighbouring communities as well as buying the Unuevworo title from Benin for her elder brother, Edjekuvwie.<\/p>\n<p>The narrative seems to be more believable that is why Eyaye, who is a junior sister to Edjekuvwie is given more prominence in the leadership structure of Ekpan where her elder sister, Ukiren and junior brother, Onoruakpor where not considered in the first line of leadership.<\/p>\n<p>The Eyaye Ruling House has five branches namely, in order of seniority, 1, Ukiren(Female), 2. Ogudje(Male), 3. Ajobeya(Female), Avwior(female) and Onoruakpor(Male). Of interest here is Avwior, Eyaye\u2019s daughter who later got marriage to one of Uvwaro-Eruowho descendant. All the others were direct brothers and sisters except Ogudje<\/p>\n<p>The various persons who have held the post of Unuevworo are as follows..<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Chief Edjekuvwie Okperibo<br \/>\n2. Chief Efemuaye Edjekuvwie<br \/>\n3. Chief Emeruobe Eridje &#8211; Eyaye<br \/>\n4. Chief Iyanyan Ogudje &#8211; Eyaye<br \/>\n5. Chief Abesan Gbegabje &#8211; Eyaye<br \/>\n6. Chief Okogho Akemu own merit<br \/>\n7 Chief Usiravwore Iffie &#8211; Edjekuvwie<br \/>\n8. Chief Jackson Ovworen Ikaka &#8211; Edjekuvwie<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>During these reigns, there were only two Ruling Houses. Ovwowho family then only produced the Usiavwre.<br \/>\nOvwowho was made a Ruling House in 1964 and Chief Akikan became the 1st Unuevworoh from that branch.<\/p>\n<p>9 Chief Akikon Idjai &#8211; Ovwowho<\/p>\n<ol start=\"10\">\n<li>Chief Omagbe Agbofordoh &#8211; Eyaye<br \/>\n11. Chief Mike Torey &#8211; Edjekuvwie<br \/>\n12. Chief Newton Agbofordoh &#8211; Ovwowho<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>On Saturday, \u00a021<sup>st<\/sup> March, 2020, Chief Hon. Peter Udubrekpe Iffie, who is maternally from the Eyaye Ruling house will be installed as the 13<sup>th<\/sup> Unuevworo of Ekpan after a complex and unprecedented selection\/election process which saw him defeating some other prominent sons despite the fact that he was considered a dark horse. The process which was supervised by Chief(Dr.) George J. Amurun, JP. the Family Head and Esirierha of Alegbor was considered as the most transparent, free and fair selection\/election process<\/p>\n<p>HON. PETERS UDUBREKPE IFFIE<strong>, a descendant of\u00a0<\/strong>EDJEKUVWIE and EYAYE<strong>\u00a0ruling houses, both of Ekpan, was born in the city of Ekpan on the 1<sup>st<\/sup>\u00a0day of January, 1969 by\u00a0<\/strong>Mr. and Mrs. Lawson Iffie<strong>\u00a0of blessed memories<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>He began his educational career in 1974 at\u00a0<strong>Okugbe Primary School Ekpan<\/strong>\u00a0where he obtained his First School Leaving Certificate and thereafter obtained his West African School Certificate (W.A.S.C.) at\u00a0<strong>St. Peters Cleaver\u2019s College, Aghalokpe\u00a0<\/strong>in 1988<\/p>\n<p>In furtherance of his educational carrier he got admission into the\u00a0<strong>Delta state university, Abraka<\/strong>\u00a0where he obtained a Bachelor of Science (Hons) degree in Political science in 1997<\/p>\n<p><strong>In honour of this nation, he went for the mandatory national youth service in 1998 in kebbi state<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On return from his national duties, he was elected Councilor in 1999 and represented ward 9 in Uvwie Local Government Council, Delta State.\u00a0Between 1999-2002, he was Chief Whip and supervisor for works. In June 2003, the Delta State government appointed\u00a0him as Vice-Chairman of\u00a0Uvwie Local Government Council, Delta State. While in May 2008, he was\u00a0Elected Vice-Chairman,\u00a0Uvwie Local Government Council, Delta State.<\/p>\n<p>He was one time national delegate of the defunct Social Democratic Party \u2013 Okpe LGA before the creation of Uvwie LGA.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HON. PETERS UDUBREKPE IFFIE<\/strong>\u00a0is the Chairman\/Managing Director of a host of companies including;\u00a0<strong>Petlaff Int\u2019l Ltd<\/strong>, an oil servicing company,\u00a0<strong>Voltron construction and Development Company limited<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>VCDC gas limited<\/strong>, etc.<\/p>\n<p>Currently he is the\u00a0<strong>Senior Special Assistant<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>on Community Development to the Delta State Government\u00a0<\/strong>under the able leadership of his\u00a0<strong>Excellency Senator (Dr) Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa,<\/strong>\u00a0the executive governor of Delta state<\/p>\n<p><strong>HON. PETERS UDUBREKPE IFFIE<\/strong>\u00a0is married and blessed with a daughter<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=19271&amp;ad_type=81&amp;rl=1800\" width=\"336\" height=\"280\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are various versions about how the people of Ekpan got here but what is common in all the narratives is that one Izegbo, was the first person to immigrate to the present day Ekpan. This narrative did not say whether Izegbo came with his family. One version says Izegbo and his Warrior teams were [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":24137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[5758,5756,5757,5755],"class_list":["post-24134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state","tag-chiefdr-george-j-amurun","tag-edjekuvwie","tag-eyaye","tag-peters-udubrekpe-iffie"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/iffie-1.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-6hg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24136,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24134\/revisions\/24136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}