As if to put to rest the controversy surrounding his chieftaincy house, an opinion leader in Olom Abalama (Oguede) Community, Emmanuel Pepple has asserted that contrary to insinuations being bandied about in some quarters, their chieftaincy house has a properly installed Chief and Head. He also clarified the issue of the proper name of the chieftaincy house, amongst other issues.

Pepple made these clarifications in an interview with the Publisher of Kristina Reports, Godswill Jumbo, in Oguede Community in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State on Sunday, February 27, 2022, wherein he also gave insight into the futuristic plans of developing his community. Enjoy the read!  

Kristina Reports: Recently, one of your brothers and an opinion leader in your community, Olom Abalama (Oguede) Community in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State, told us in an interview that Harrigan Pepple is not the Chief and Head of your chieftaincy House. Do you agree with him?

Emmanuel Pepple: The attack on our Warialabo by Mr. Iganima Pepple was unprovoked, even though we know where all these are coming from, I have to put things in the proper perspective so that the public are not misinformed.

When you say “Warialabo” who are you referring to?

I am referring to the Chief and Head of our House, Warialabo Harrigan Pepple.

There has been this controversy about the correct name of your chieftaincy house, can you tell us what is the real or proper name?

We are of the Jack Manilla House of Olom Abalama (Oguede) Community of Grand Bonny Kingdom. Sometime in the year 2000, the name was corrupted to Jack Manilla Pepple House. Most of us thought that both names were interchangeable. But we had a rethink after we received some guidance and our research proved otherwise, especially, when we checked in page 8 of the Bonny Constitution and page 122 of the book, ‘The Trading States of the Oil Rivers’ by G. I. Jones, wherein we were referred to the correct name as Jack Manilla House. We corrected it thereafter and contacted the Bonny Chiefs Council and published it in the Tide Newspaper. When the Chiefs Council refused to comply and revert to the original name, the House instituted a suit against them asking the court to compel them to comply. Unfortunately, right now it is only the court that can tell Bonny people the correct name of a chieftaincy house in their Kingdom. So sad.

You also read in his interview where he said that he, alongside other members of your community, investigated the incident where a Finima young man was molested at your sand dump…

I was not there but investigations revealed that he was actually molested by some youths from our community. When it became unbearable for him, he tricked the youths that he is from Ghana and that was why they let him go.

In that same interview, he took exception to your Chief calling Oguede youths miscreants.

That’s not true, Chief Harrigan said, the Finima boy was molested by some miscreants. He also said that the “good people of Oguede” and himself hereby “condemn this dastardly act in its entirety”. This means that there are good people in Oguede, including the youths, but those people who molested the boy are miscreants. Is there any community where we don’t have the good and the bad?

You read where he stated that your Chief, Warialabo Harrigan Pepple is joining forces with the leadership of the Brown House to disrespect the throne. Do you share this idea?

Chief Harrigan does not even know the Brown House Chief. How can he disrespect the throne? His grandfather, late Chief Claude Manilla Pepple was a Regent in Bonny Kingdom for so many years.  Chief Harrigan has full respect for the throne. He even told me once that no King in Bonny history will be like King Perekule. So, how can he turn around now to disrespect the same throne? If he says where he built his house is his land, how does that amount to disrespecting the throne?

But is it that Warialabo Harrigan and Sir Iganima Pepple have some unresolved issues? Are they not supposed to be brothers?

It all started when Mr. Iganima Pepple presented a letter from his elder brother, Abesa Pepple to the Chief, requesting the Chief to admit Iganima into the Elders Council. It was curious that a letter dealing with such an important issue was signed by only his elder brother. The Chief pleaded with him to have other members of his Burusu sign the letter to confirm that they decided to jump Iganima’s immediate elder brother, Boma Pepple to present Iganima, and above all, the Burusu is not a one-man affair. So, at least one more person should also sign together with Abesa. The Chief, therefore, turned down the request. It was since then that Iganima started his disturbance in the community. Along the line, those who felt in the Kingdom that the Chief stepped on their toes saw him (Iganima) as a good agent of destabilization, and contracted him to do what he is doing now, just to slight the Chief. I hereby present for your perusal, the letter requesting the Chief to admit Mr. Iganima Pepple into the Elders Council.

One point Iganima made was that Warialabo Harrigan has not been elected, not to talk of installing him at the House level, that he is just a nominee. How do you react to this?

Is that not laughable? Why then did Iganima come with the letter addressed to the Chief-Elect? Why not to the Chief Nominee? Is Chief-Elect not a product of an election? He talks from the two sides of his mouth. How do you want to believe such a person? Mr. Iganima resurfaced in the community about eight years after the Chief was elected by the elders of the House, presented to members of the House and installed as Chief and Head of the House.  

The Chief was selected by the descendants of the founder of our community and Chieftaincy House, Chief Iye Jack Manilla on the 21^st of February, 2004. He was again unanimously elected and selected by the qualified elders at that time on the 16^th of October, 2004 and presented and installed on the 30^th of October, 2004. In December, 2004, a family in Oguede instituted a case in court against him challenging his eligibility. He is not a nominee. He has been elected and installed at the House level. Mr. Iganima should call for the House’s minutes of meeting of 30^th October, 2004, as evidence which he is looking for since he was nowhere around the community then. It is also important to inform him and other naysayers that the then Chairman of the House, Amaopusenibo Sir Fred Stephen Pepple, the current Secretary of the Titled Citizens Assembly, who presided over the Chief’s presentation did not allow cameras into the Opuwari for reasons best known to him; that is why there are no pictures of the day’s event. If the Chief was not installed, did he forcefully take the seat from the former Chairman of the House, Amaopusenibo Fred Pepple? After all, he (Amaopusenibo Fred Stephen Pepple) also contested but lost to Chief Harrigan. Has Chief Harrigan not been holding House meetings? If he was not elected and installed, how come that Mr. Iganima Pepple refers to him sometimes as Chief-Elect and at other times as Chief? Now watch and listen to this video clip to hear where the Iganima himself called Warialabo Harrigan “our chief-elect”. Why not our chief nominee?

When we received some money from the Bonny Chiefs Councils, the Chief, in a House meeting, appointed this same Iganima Pepple as the Chairman to disburse the money equally to the various Burusu. In Mr. Iganima’s report he acknowledged that our House is the Jack Manilla House not Jack Manilla Pepple House. In this same report of Iganima Pepple, he was seeking for approval from the Chief. Which Chief was he referring to? Please see the report for yourself. Let me not say everything I know about him so that Bonny people will not drive him away from the Island for trying to mislead us.

But he said the Chiefs Council rejected your Chief Harrigan and asked him not to parade himself as Chief Elect that instead the House should go back and redo the process.

That is another lie from Mr. Iganima Pepple. Chief Harrigan has never been presented to the Council for recognition, so how could they have rejected him? The Bonny Chiefs Council recognized our Chief as Wari-Alabo-Elect since he has not been presented to them. One of the problems we have with the Council is the use of Jack Manila Pepple as the name of our Chieftaincy House; that was why we took the matter to the Court to decide. See this letter where they even invited him as the Warialabo-Elect. s Council rejecting me, after the statement, ‘so how could they have rejected him’. The money given to Iganima to disburse by the Chief, which was as a compensation from Shell for polluting our waters, was given to our Chief by the Chiefs Council. Would you reject someone and still hand over community money to the person?

We have heard from the grapevine and even Iganima hinted that your community should be expecting a Chief very soon. What do you say to that?

Yes, we have heard it too, that the Manilla Pepple House has been given a marching order to hurriedly bring a Chief to the Council by March or April 2022. I won’t be surprised if that is why Iganima is doing what he is doing to qualify as the preferred one. In December last year, it was alleged that he ordered his boys to break open our Opuwari, which has been under lock and key to receive the Nwaotam and some people from the Manilla Pepple House in the New Year, but some gallant youths kept them out. In the process some people sustained injuries. See these video clip as evidence.

There is problem in Bonny. First, Manilla Pepple House, second, Brown House and Finima, and in March or April this year we are expecting our own. If they succeed in smuggling their illegal Chief to the Council to contaminate the Jack Manilla House seat with their Jack Manilla Pepple name, it will only be temporary, at God’s time we shall take them out. Since March last year when we reclaimed our land through the court, the pressure to run a parallel government in our community has surged. We are waiting. Those behind their proposed illegal parallel government know that they can’t change anything just to slight our Chief for bruising their egos.

In that interview, Iganima raised the poser as to why your Chief is not empowering members of the community members, especially, the youths. How do you react to that?

The Chief concluded negotiations in November last year with the Federal Polytechnic of Oil and Gas where it was agreed that, for the school to use our land for projects, they should, among other things, do these for us: 1) Give priority to our community members seeking admission into the school. 2) Provide Scholarship for community members who gained admission there. 3) Provide remedial program for students from the community. 4) Award petty contracts to our community contractors. 5) Provide employment for community members, especially, for the lower cadre. 6) The institution will also build a concrete jetty for the school at the community’s waterfront to be used also by the Community.

The Chief made it possible for the youths, especially, to own their own lands where most of us are erecting permanent structures today. There was a proposal around 2003 to handover our waterfront to one late Mr. Dan-Jumbo by the then Chairman of our community for the sum of N30,000 per month. Chief Harrigan (then a floor member) stood against the idea and the waterfront remained for the community. Now, the youths are collecting a fortune from those using the place and sharing the money among themselves including those opposing him. Currently, the State Government is asking the court for an interlocutory injunction to stop Bonny Community from using the waterfront as they were not a party when the court awarded the place to our community. Chief Harrigan is back again in court to defend the land. Where are the Kingdom lawyers and those opposing him in our community? As part of his empowerment initiatives, he paid school fees, rent for accommodation on campuses, acceptance fees, money for students’ project; bought laptop for a community student studying Architecture, so on and so forth. Indeed, Chief Harrigan is God sent.

What do you think of Mr. Iganima Pepple’s proposal to meet with your Chief face to face at any place of his choice?

He has the Chief’s phone number and knows his house, let him reach out to the Chief. What does darkness and light have in common?

What is the fundamental problem in your community?

Some people want to reap from where their ancestors did not sow and they are getting support from high places for obvious reasons.