The people of Ugborhen District in Sapele Local Government Area have said they are the original owners of the Ovhor oilfield being drilled by Seplat Energy Limited.
In a counter-protest, the people of Ugborhen District said there is no existence of Urhuorodje community describing as fraudulent those using the name to lay claim to the Ovhor oilfield since the recent collapse of the Majestic rig of the oil firm.
Displaying relevant documents and conducting journalists round the Ovhor oilfield area, the Speaker of Ugborhen community, Anthony Agwase, former Speaker of the community, David Ukueghwa, a major stakeholder of the community, Rapheal Okologo and others posited that Urhuorodje community does not exist in the history of Okpe Kingdom.
In proving their point, they said the Ovhor field is a virgin field where there is no permanent human habitation apart from the houses for the surveillance team of Seplat and soldiers acting as security to the oilfield as well as a few camps of fishermen and those carrying handsaw timber business.
According to them, Ugborhen District is made up of Ugborhen community, Ugbukurusu community, Ikerensan community and Obotie community adding that Ovhor field is in Ugborhen community including the diety which the alleged imposters are saying is in Urhuorodje community.
They explained that Urhuorodje community is not part of Ugborhen District nor in Okpe Kingdom as contained in the Certified True Copy, CTC, of Sapele map and a document from the palace of the Orodje of Okpe Kingdom, Orhue The First which was sent to the Delta State Oil and Gas Commissioner at a time the issue came up.
The Ugborhen District elders and stakeholders traced the genesis of the problem to litigation which Shell whom they gave the Ovhor oilfield area to in 1991 to carry out oil exploration went into with a group of strangers they did not know without informing them.
They alleged that through the help of an influential senior officer of Shell at that time those who now parading themselves to be from Urhuorodje community got what they termed a backdoor judgement from the court.
All attempts to join the suit before the judgement according to them did not yield any result instead, the court advised Ugborhen District to drag the people laying claim to the existence of Urhuorodje community and now Ovhor oilfield to court which they have been since 2013.
They disclosed that Ugborhen District had dragged the Delta State Government to court over a purported document the alleged imposters claimed it wrote in their favour and that the Delta State Government is yet to present itself in court.
They appealed to the State Government to resolve the matter to prevent it from degenerating into a crisis.
The recent collapse of Seplat Energy Limited ‘Majestic rig’ claimed one life with three others reportedly missing.
