1). Your Royal Majesty, AMB. E.A. Ubabirl, Bini Pere IV, Agadagba of Egbema Kingdom,
2). The Chairman and Members of Egbema Traditional Council,
3). The Chairman and Members of Egbema Council of Chiefs,
4). The Chairman and Members of Egbema Leaders of Thought (ELOT),
5). Representatives of Ijaw National Council (INC), Egbema Chapter,
6). The Interim Chairman and Members of Egbema Christian Forum (ECF)
7) The President Generals from various Communities of Egbema kingdom,
8). Representatives of IYC and EYC,
9). Egbema Peace Keeping Force,
10). Other highly placed dignitaries from within and outside Egbema, here present,
11). Distinguished members of the Press,
12) Ladies and Gentle Men
It is with high sense of humility and joy that we welcome our newly crowned and enthroned vibrant, amiable and sovereign Royal Father to his own domain – Polobubo Community on his epoch making maiden visit. We are indeed, very elated and grateful to have you in our midst.
Your Royal Majesty, Egbema is privileged to have you on the throne of our forefathers. May your reign bring peace, security and sustainable development to Egbema kingdom and may you live long on the throne of your fore fathers. Your Majesty Sir, we do not wish to burden you with complex speech, but please kindly permit us to highlight a few issues that need to be brought to your knowledge as our Royal Father and King.
Amongst the major issues threatening our very existence as a community is our geographical location in Delta State. Polobubo is a boundary Community between Ondo and Delta States, situate as a lone Ijaw Community in the midst of a cluster of several of llaje Communities of Ondo States, such as Ojumolc, Ilckpete, Awoye, Ikorigho etc and a host of other Ijaw Communities of Ondo State viz Akpata, Opuba, Ukpe and Dababilebu.
The calamity which Polobubo faces is the fact that, most of the naje Communities are victim of continuous ferocious coastal encroachment, which erode their settlements and pushes them upland to the Polobubo geographical environment at the Delta State boundary. Consequently, we find that, for the past many decades, Ilaje communities have shifted kilometers away from their original land area into our territory, Polobubo community, and this is a perennial occurrence.
We therefore, need the Delta state government to intervene because there is a serious encroachment on the Delta state territory. We trust His Royal Majesty will prove well to protect his geographical territory by taking up this matter with the Delta state government. We humbly request you do this with dispatch.
Another serious reason calling for the intervention of the Delta state government is the fact that, international Oil Companies are taking undue advantage of this encroachment of the Ilajes into Polobubo territory to push the Oil and Gas Fields and Locations in the. Delta region to Ondo state. This will also affect the operational activities of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) Host Communities Development Trust (HCDT) in terms of the implementation of the 2021 Petroleum Industry Act (PIA). This is equally likely to adversely affect the operations of the PIA in the area.
We suggest that His Royal Majesty seeks the collaboration of his counterpart Royal Majesties of Ugbo Kingdom (Olu-Igbo) and Arogbo Kingdom (Pere of Arogbo The, both of Ondo state concerning the above situation.
Special Request
Your Royal Majesty, we of the Polobubo Community hereby wish to sincerely request that the hitherto Nine (9) Autonomous Communities in Egbema Kingdom be increased to ten (10) AutonomousCommunities by the creation of Polobubo (Tsekelewu) Community as a autonomous Community. Polobubo was founded over Six Hundred (600) years ago by Miyen and Oke, the two sons of Obololo who was the eldest son of Oloduwa, the founder of Opuama, who migrated from Amatu about Nine Hundred (900) years ago. Polobubo is the most populated community in Egbema Kingdom and it is not right that its identity continues to be appendage to Opuama. There is no love lost between Polobubo and Opuama communities but, the-time is overdue for -the two communities to exercise their individual rights, privileges and freewill in Egbema Kingdom. We are equally aware of other similar agitation for autonomy and we are not opposed to such agitations.
There is a general impression that, within this very few months of your occupying the Royal throne, your verbal expressions, language and actions have depicted a very brilliant show of pleasantness, fatherliness, wisdom and royalty which together seems to usher into the kingdom a welcome aura of love, harmony and passion. We are proud of you sir.
We in Polobubo love you, Your Royal Majesty, you are welcome. God bless our Royal Majesty. Long live the king,
Long live Egbema Kingdom,
Long live Egbema Sons and Daughters.
Welcome Our Great King.
