The Palace of the Obi of Ogwashi-Uku, HRM Obi (Dr.) Ifechukwude Aninshi Okonjo II, has dismissed as misleading a recent petition sent to Delta State Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, by four individuals identified as Onyenor Ogwu, Pius Izediunor, Nodu Izediunor and PC Izediunor, describing it as an attempt to reopen a matter that has already been decided with finality by the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
The petitioners, who described themselves as representatives of an “Umu Obi Izediunor Royal Family” and an “Obi Dieyi Royal Family,” had alleged that buildings were demolished, fences erected and access to some properties restricted at Ogbenti-Obi Quarters in Ogwashi-Uku, and urged the Governor to intervene.
Responding on behalf of the Palace, Prince Onyema Okonjo, Chief of Staff to the Obi of Ogwashi-Uku, described the petitioners as recalcitrant serial losers who have refused to accept defeat despite losing the case at every level of the Nigerian judicial system, including twice at the Supreme Court. According to Prince Onyema Okonjo, “They are delusional and in denial and have refused to accept the reality of their situation.”
“This is not a fresh or unresolved dispute,” Prince Okonjo said. “The Delta State High Court ordered this same faction to vacate the Palace premises as far back as 2007. That judgment went to the Court of Appeal, which affirmed it. It went to the Supreme Court, which affirmed it. It went to the Supreme Court a second time, and was affirmed again. There is nothing left to litigate. What we are dealing with is a recalcitrant faction of serial litigants who have lost this case repeatedly and simply refuse to accept it.”
According to Prince Okonjo, rather than comply with the 2007 judgment, members and supporters of the Izediunor faction spent the years that followed selling portions of the ancestral Palace land to third parties and erecting structures on it, in defiance of the subsisting court order.
It was not until February 2021, he said, after all avenues of appeal had been exhausted, that court bailiffs, accompanied by police officers, moved in to execute the judgment and evict the occupants. A Certificate of Possession was subsequently issued to the Obi of Ogwashi-Uku, formally confirming legal title and possession of the premises.
“Even after the eviction and the issuance of the certificate of possession, some individuals refused to leave and continued to occupy parts of the grounds,” Prince Okonjo said. “What has now happened is that the Palace completed the fencing of its own premises and cleared illegal structures that had no business being there, on land it has held a valid court judgment and certificate over for years. That is not demolition in the sense the petition suggests. That is a property owner enforcing a Supreme Court judgment on his own land.”
The Palace also linked the recent petition to an ongoing criminal trial before the Federal High Court, Asaba Division, in Charge No. FHC/ASB/18C/2024, in which individuals connected to the Izediunor faction — including Mike Nwaukoni and Francis Okolie, also known as “Mayor” — are standing trial on charges of terrorism, attempted murder, attempting to force their way into the Palace, which led to security officials being attacked, waging communal war, and destruction of police vehicles. The prosecution has closed its case in that trial, and the defence is expected to open shortly. It is as a result of this incident that the Palace premises needed to be further secured and fortified.
Prince Okonjo further noted that the security works at the premises were carried out with police presence sanctioned by the Inspector-General of Police and the Commissioner of Police for Delta State, and questioned why a matter already settled by the Supreme Court, and enforced with the knowledge of the police high command, should require executive intervention.
“The Obi of Ogwashi-Uku recovered his ancestral Palace grounds through the courts, all the way to the Supreme Court, twice,” he said. “He showed patience by allowing some occupants time on the premises rather than enforcing his rights immediately and fully. That patience is now being repaid with a petition asking the Governor to look again at a case the highest court in the country has already closed.”
“We understand that some people find it difficult to move on after losing at the Supreme Court, but that difficulty cannot be turned into a licence to keep dragging a settled matter back to the public square. Furthermore, there is no Izediunor who was ever a legitimate Obi of Ogwashi-Uku. The courts have already made that clear. They are illegitimate usurpers and were illegal occupants of the Palace premises,” Prince Okonjo said. “This case is closed. What remains is for the law to be respected.”
Efforts to reach the petitioners for further comment were not immediately successful at the time of filing this report.
