THERE is palpable disquiet and uncertainty in the agrarian and once serene community of Uzanu, the traditional heartland of Southeast Uneme clan of Etsako East Local Government Area (LGA), Edo State. This follows the alleged dethronement of Benjamin Ikani, by the kingmakers, council-of-chiefs and inhabitants of the village, on accounts of adhesive indictments, centred on highhandedness, violent and sacrilegious conducts and financial indecorum etc.
It is disturbing that Uzanu, a village that was rapidly transformed as a flag-off of the populist and development-oriented government of the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s era, and propelled by Prince Clem Agba, a former two-time commissioner, could be so traumatised. The village was a cynosure of eyes, coupled with many other tangible projects that Prince Agba brought in from the federal level, as immediate-past minister of state for Budget and National Planning. Added to these, the setting up of the Southeast clan of Uzanu, which gave Ikani more impetus, was similarly a miracle of Governor Oshiomhole and a brainchild of Prince Agba.
With these leaps, Benjamin Ikani, the man who is now said to be sitting on the bare ground, Instead of his once exalted throne, was lucky to be the village’s Oliola, the title for Uzanu, Uneme king. In answering a phone call with our medium, Benjamin Ikani asserted that he remains the king, against the many odds which appear unfavourable to him. He forcefully proclaimed that his removal was a child’s play and those who claimed that, were insignificant in the matrix of traditional governance of Uzanu and other villages of the clan.
He seemed to have portrayed a misjudgment and pretence, as he found no answer to the question asked him by our medium, as to why those who he said are irrelevant, were invited with him for a truce by Hon Lucky Eseigbe, the state commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, as earlier revealed by Ikani, himself? Additionally, Benjamin Ikani also confirmed that efforts to reconcile him with the community, after Eseigbe’s intervention, had failed at Uzanu, a thing the kingmakers, chief and other had also confirmed in a press conference. A question became handy as to why Benjamin Ikani would strive to reconcile with those who are irrelevant?
Insiders within the state chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), who are very closed to a top state executive of the party, from Edo North senatorial district, confided to this reporter that a certain associate of the said APC state executive member, called ‘Sunday’, often boasted that he must use his closeness to Governor Okpebholo, to reinstate the deposed Uzanu king, a friend of his and the said APC executive, as a political vendetta to a notable APC stalwart from Uzanu.
“We thank God that Governor Okpebholo is a man of fair judgment, who cannot be fooled. If the so-called ‘Sunny’ was unable to stop the recent dethronement and humiliation of his own king from the nearby Wanno kingdom of Agenebode, that is his origin, can he influence the governor to re-install an unpopular person in Uzanu, outside of his hometown?” Exclaimed, the anonymous informer!
In the Guardian of May 19, 2025, tagged “Open Letter to the Government of Edo State, the said removal of Benjamin Ikani, as Oliola of Uzanu”, is supported by the Uzanu council of chiefs, the Oliola-in-Council and majority of the villagers. The publication chronicled the raging accusations of Benjamin Ikani, that was similarly communicated in writing on 21st September, 2024 to the same Royal Highness, the Oliola of Anegbette and Clan Head of South Uneme Clan, who ex-Governor Obaseki asked to preside over the affairs of Uzanu, when the clan was unduly revoked by government.
The publication hinted that Obaseki also later erred and set the template for the protracted crisis, by reaffirming and presenting the staff of office to Ikani, on 11th October, 2024, thus bypassing his removal and usurping the rights and the traditional demands of the larger Uzanu community that deposed him. Ikani, who I said to have only few supporters in Uzanu, had relied on the overriding influence of ex-Governor Obaseki, who allegedly imposed him as an infiltrator, in a bid to ensnare the Uzanu folks and reduce the strong support base of APC, by deactivating key APC leaders within the community, in order to create a strong support base for his (Obaseki) People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
The document claimed that motives for Ikani’s removal were not political, as there was also a stiff opposition to his installation on 6th November, 2015. Some Uzanu kingmakers and chiefs, with a section of the village, refused to endorse him, when those who knew his antecedence, opened a can of worm that he was not a trustworthy and unselfish person, and so was not qualified to be their king.
Could this also be the reason why the chiefs, elders, farmers and fishermen of the community were at loggerhead with him, in 2016, shortly after his installation? Journalists had severally visited to investigate the extent of damages by oil spills in Uzanu vicinity, following ruptured petroleum pipelines at a distant community of Iddo, Okpella on the Auchi/Okene expressway. Some top officers of a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which was responsible for the pollution, had confirmed the villagers’ allegation that the now disputed king had reached the terms of compensation with NNPC. Meanwhile, those who suffered the irreversible losses to their livelihoods and that environment were said to have been advised by the same Ikani, to forget about compensation, that NNPC had denied responsibility.
Signers of the document were; Chief Emmanuel Ikeme, the Onotu of Uzanu, Chief Ibrahim Omokpua, The Ogiega of Uzanu, Chief Peter Ajegba, Anogie of Uzanu, Chief Kasimu Kadiri, Osese of Uzanu, Chief Abubakar Sule, the Ozemoya of Uzanu, Chief Jimoh Shaibu, Ogiewokha of Uzanu, Chief Damodu Baja, Ezeomo of Uzanu and four others.
Reasons were adduced for the dethronement of Benjamin Ikani, who allegedly ordered one Anthony Ademu, his aide and some Uzanu vigilante men, to force one Achilemu Esther, a woman from the village, to eat her excreta and swallow it down with water. In 2021, Ikani also allegedly tortured three elders of the village, Mr. Kenya, Mrs. Abide and Mrs. Michael Ayegbeni, by tying them overnight to the stake, flogging them with the horse whips and reviving them to life. Both were said to have been accused of witchcraft, some trial by ordeal, which Edo State commissioner of police charged to Auchi Magistrate Court,
Deadly threats and taboos were purportedly committed, when Ikani brandished the sacred object of ‘Eben’ (scimitar) at the Uzanu Divisional Police Office, to place a curse of death on one Joseph Momoh, his subject. He was also alleged of raising deadly curses at nights, with the Inhimhiasu masquerades, on Uzanu youth and elders, who dared to challenge his misdeeds. He was said to have frequently disagreed with his chiefs and elders-in-council, who he serially cursed, flogged, punched and threatened with his double barrel gun.
In a community that Benjamin Ikani claimed to this medium that he presides as a king, the allegation against one Ikpeme Okojie, and his arrest by the police was said to have been thwarted by Ikani, because the accused and others, who are vigilantes, were some of those who do his unlawful biddings. In a petition to the Inspector General of Police, Abuja, dated 23rd May 2025, Emoshioke Kanoba, a lawyer, urged the number-one police boss, to transfer the case of threats to the life of Mr. Joseph Momoh, a Youth Chairman/Leader in Uzanu, and illegal possession of firearms, against the said Ikpeme Okogie and the others, to the state police command, Benin City. The petition claimed that Ikpeme Okogie and his gangs, who waylaid Joseph Momoh, were arrested and detained at Agenebode Area Command Police, whereupon a well-loaded locally made pistol and ammunitions were recovered in his possession, by the police, who searched his Uzanu’s residence. The accused was allegedly set free at the Fugar Police State, by the Agenebode Area Command.
Ikani was said to be highly temperamental and violent. In 2015 he was alleged to have attempted to slaughter his brother, Agbona Ikani, but for bystanders, who rescued him, as he slithered a sharp knife to his neck. Agbona is said to bear the open scar on his neck, till date. He was accused of running berserk, with a machete, to the farmland of Kasimu Kadiri, the holder of the Osese title of Uzanu, to fight with him, and that he forcefully took over the wife of the same Chief Kadiri, who is now a wife to him.
Ikani, as Oliola, was also accused of extravagance and greed. And that he forcibly demands for money and material gifts from well-to-do persons and the poor people of Uzanu, apart from the primary needs the people voluntarily offer him. He was blamed of unauthorised removal of N2,220,000 from the community’s coffer, for himself. Ikani was also said to have caused a serious crisis between the Southeast Uneme Clan and their Igbira neighbours of Kogi State, to who he secretly sold Uzanu’s farmlands and fishponds. He was indicted for giving out chieftaincy titles to Jeje Osese, Sunday Alugbe and others, when the revocation of the clan and his throne by government, was still in force.
Behind the community, he allegedly gave land to herdsmen, who cause attendant kidnapping, killings and other crimes, in Edo North senatorial district, which local communities were being cautioned against. Benjamin Ikani was alleged to have disregarded the advice of the Oliola-in-Council of chiefs not to cede Uzanu land to herders, from who he collected regular payments, ranging from N500,000 to N1,000,000 and cows, having no consideration for farmers, whose crops have been destroyed, alongside crime upsurge.
Was the Benjamin Ikani’s alleged unlawful dealings with the herdsmen and his misuse of Uzanu youth responsible for the attempts by Sani Ikani, his younger brother and his said gangs, to lynch a reporter of the Independent Television, as he and other newsmen recorded for the news, a peaceful rally recently held at Uzanu community? Why did Sani Ikani, with the attacking youth, try to stifle government’s efforts to stamp out cultism in the community? Do they have sympathy for cultism or they are the cultists being protested against?
Already, elaborate media reports of the protest and ugly incident had prompted Edo police boss and other security outfits to investigate Sani Ikani and his attackers, pronto!
The said Guardian publication indicated that Ikani “Disregarded the meeting called by Uzanu community and deliberately refused to attend the meeting, which was attended by the Oliola-in-Council, on 21/9/2024, to defend all the allegations made against him”. But, Ikani denied knowledge of the invitation. When asked why he didn’t invite his accusers to say his own side, hence he agreed there were such accusations against him he snapped that people always accuse others wrongly.
A video item that ought to be a confidential official meeting had been widespread in the social media, at the instance of Hon Eseigbe. This reportedly led to wild jubilations in Uzanu, by Benjamin Ikani and his supporters, that the commissioner had reinstated the disputed king. The jubilant had allegedly echoed derogatory songs and taunted APC supporters in the village, that they, even though are PDP, had successfully disgraced Uzanu APC supporters in their (APC) house in Benin City.
Said a chief from Uzanu, who attended the meeting; “It was a rush-rush and we were barely asked to state our grievances and positions, when we were instructed to go back home for amicable settlement and that Benjamin Ikani, the man who had been rejected by all, for his atrocities, should plead for forgiveness to the kingmakers, the Oliola-in-Council and those he had offended. What we do not know was whether such shallow intervention can stop two court cases against Ikani, in Auchi Magistrate Court, when conducts of Benjamin Ikani became worse after the meeting”
Meanwhile, Benjamin Ikani had denied allegation by leaders of Uzanu that he has fixed June 6th, 2025 for the turban of new chiefs both in Wanno and Uzanu clans, respectively, with the help of the aforesaid ‘Sunday. The atmosphere of Uzanu was further charged that the planned events could cause intense crisis. This is at the backdrop by the community’s insistent, through a press conference that Ikani ceases to be their king.
What is the way out of the Uzanu’s kingship imbroglio?
Impeccable, but anonymous and well-informed sources within the state’s government house, office of the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, security formations and APC, all in Benin City, suggested to Governor Okpebholo, to resolve, without delay, the Uzanu puzzle, in the same manner the Okuokpellagbe (kingship) tussle in Okpella, was settled amicably settled by him. They observed that ex-Governor Obaseki was the cause of the Uzanu crises, by similarly imposing an Oliola (king) on the villagers, like he did over majority of Okpella people. The sources had reminded that the Oliola throne, should be thrown as a contest open to others, including Benjamin Ikani, if he wants.
