Opobo

Opobo is an Igbo speaking community in Rivers State and Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.

Opobo
Opobo
City state
Coordinates: 4°30′41″N 7°32′24″E
Country Nigeria
StateRivers State and Akwa Ibom State
Founded byKing Jaja of Opobo
Government
 • AmanyanaboDandeson Douglas Jaja V
Time zoneUTC+1 (WAT)

Opobo Kingdom is made up of 67 War Canoe Houses that are grouped into 14 sections ("polos"). The Fourteen sections are Adibie, Biriye, Diepiri, Dapu, Dappa Ye Amakiri, Epelle and Fubarakworo. Others are Iroanya, Jaja, Kala-omuso, Okonuwariapu, Kiepirima, Owujie and Tolofari.[1][2]

History
Further information: Jaja of Opobo
King Jaja of Opobo Memorial

Opobo is located to the east of the Kingdom of Bonny. Jubo Jubogha the founder of Opubo-ama (Opobo Kingdom) was once a captured slave originally from the Amaigbo-Nkwere community in the present-day Imo state. He would later rise from slavery to lead the Opubo Anna Pepple chieftaincy house of Bonny [3] In 1870, Jubo first arrived in what is now Opobo, having moved there due to a civil war in Bonny between his followers and those of Chief Oko Jumbo, the leader of the rival Manilla Pepple chieftaincy family.[4][5] The king named his new state after Amanyanabo Opubo "Pepple" Perekule the Great, a Pepple king in Bonny that had reigned there from 1792 to 1830.

Notable people
  • Kenneth Minimah, CFR, a Nigerian infantry soldier and the former Nigerian Army Chief of Army Staff
  • Atedo Peterside, CON, a Nigerian entrepreneur, investment banker and economist.
  • Dakuku Peterside, former Director-General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA.
  • Adawari Pepple, businessman, and former senator.
  • Amaopusenibo Sim Fubara His Excellency, The Executive Governor of Rivers State.

Notes

    References
    1. "Ikot Abasi". Encyclopædia Britannica. 9 January 2009. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
    2. "About Opobo". Opoboregatta.com. Archived from the original on 25 December 2012. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
    3. "General Minimah, his Opobo ancestry and the burden of history, By Eric Teniola | Premium Times Nigeria". February 21, 2014.
    4. G. I. Jones (2001). The trading states of the oil rivers: a study of political development in Eastern Nigeria. James Currey Publishers. p. 15ff. ISBN 0-85255-918-6.
    5. "The Izon of the Niger Delta by Onyoma Research Publications - Ebook | Scribd" – via www.scribd.com.

    Further reading
    • Burns, Alan. History of Nigeria, George Allen & Unwin, 1929.
    • Dike, Kenneth O. Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta, 1830-1885, Oxford University Press, 1956.
    • Annang Heritage Preservation, article on Annang
    • Britannica article on Ikot Abasi
    • Nair, Kannan K. (1972). Politics and Society in South Eastern Nigeria 1841-1906, Frank Cass, London.
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