The lingering land tussle between Umuezei Quarters of Asaba and Okwe Community appears to have taken a fresh turn, as the people of Umuezei Quarters have moved to enforce a subsisting judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria over the ownership of the vast expanse of land presently occupied by Okwe.
This was contained in a petition dated 14th September, 2026, addressed to His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Elder Sheriff Oborevwori, Governor of Delta State, by the Solicitors to Umuezei (Ezenei) Chike Onyemenam, SAN.
The petition, which was received at the Office of the Governor, Government House, Asaba, on 15th September, 2026, and copied to His Royal Majesty, Asagba Prof. Epiphany Azinge, is titled: “Re: Okwe Settlement, Asaba – Unlawful Application for Grant of Autonomy and Government Recognition of a Traditional Ruler for Okwe – Notice of a Subsisting Judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria”.
According to the petition, the four or five families that make up the present-day Okwe Community are Customary Farming Tenants of Umuezei (Ezenei) Quarters of Asaba, who granted them parcels of swamp land (Ani-olu) for farming purposes upon payment of farming tribute or rent of 400 tubers of yam per annum, and also granted them parcels of dry land (Ani-ocha) to build their houses and reside thereon while farming on their neighbouring Ani-olu land.
The Solicitors stated that for subsequently challenging their landlords’ title, the Umuezei Family of Asaba sued the members of Okwe Settlement in Suit No. A/13/76 before the Asaba High Court and obtained judgment, which was affirmed by the Court of Appeal in Appeal No. FCA/B/103/81 and finally affirmed by the Supreme Court of Nigeria in Appeal No. SC.70/1986.
The petition further disclosed that the Supreme Court in its unanimous judgment delivered on 10th February, 1989, and reported in 1989 1NWLR (Part 99) Page 514, held that members of Okwe Settlement were Customary Farming Tenants of Umuezei Quarters; that for challenging the title of their landlords and failure to pay rent/tribute of 400 tubers of yam, later N400.00, they had incurred forfeiture; and consequently ordered the entire members of Okwe Community to vacate within 12 months from the date of the judgment, the entire Ani-olu and Aniocha land (present-day Okwe Town/Settlement), failing which they should make peace with their landlords and owners of the land, the members of Umuezei Quarters of Asaba.
A Certified True Copy of the judgment was attached to the petition.
The petitioners alleged that in defiance of the subsisting judgment of the Apex Court, members of Okwe Settlement have remained on the land, continued to sell vast portions of same, file fresh cases against the adjudged owners, and have now brazenly applied to the Government of Delta State to recognize Okwe Settlement, the same land they were ordered to vacate in 1989, as a separate town, to recognize a member of their family as a Traditional Ruler and to hand over Staff of Office to the said Traditional Ruler to govern or set up a Traditional Government on land which does not belong to them.
Describing Governor Oborevwori as a great respecter of the Rule of Law, the Umuezei Family expressed certainty that the facts had not been brought to his notice, stressing that there was no gainsaying the fact that a group of farming tenants residing and farming on their landlords’ land cannot become a new town with a Traditional Ruler recognized by Government on land which does not belong to them and on land which the Supreme Court had ordered them to vacate from, but where they have remained in defiance.
They therefore appealed to His Excellency to use his good offices to investigate the matter and, if found to be true, to put a stop to same and thus prevent a possible breakdown of law and order within the Asaba Capital Territory.