Igbide Kingdom
Eru landed at the lake. The Ovie does not go to the fishing feast. Three quarter-lines from three children. The eighth Ovie sat forty-seven years. The ninth took the staff in 2025.
Where Igbide sits
Igbide is in Isoko South. Neighbours named in clan notes: Umeh south, Olomoro north, Emede north-east, Uzere east, Enhwe west. Assembly seat: Isoko South II. The Urie-Igbide lake runs by a deep creek toward Patani on the Niger. That water was the road until the Warri–Patani highway. Oroni field sits on the same ground.
History
Igbide is one of the Isoko clans that does not begin the story in Benin. The founder named in the oral record is Eru.
Eru from Mgbidi
He is said to have come from Mgbidi in today’s Imo State, through Elele in Rivers, then up the Niger into eastern Isoko. First camp: the present site of Owodokpokpo, on the lake. Raids from Aboh and Ijaw, and the flood, pushed him inland. He stopped at Otowodo — high ground above the water — left war kit there, and went on to the present Igbide. That stop is now Egbo-Igbide: shrine ground and the old armoury of the clan. Town memory dates the stool from about 1668.
Later writers also name Awka and a later Uvwie (Effurun) stream. The Mgbidi–Elele–Niger road is the one the clan itself keeps repeating.
Eheri and Emede
Abiagbe and Ikime record that Eru’s eldest son, Eheri, a hunter, left to found the settlement now called Emede. Emede’s own page, and Emede mouths, reject that. They claim Benin and say the tie is marriage, not a father’s house. Both claims stay on the record.
The kindreds named as Eru’s own line inside Igbide are Ekpo and Okpohro.
Quarters
The kingdom is spoken of as three major quarter-lines, after three children of Eru, sitting on two older blocs: river Unuame and land Okpara.
Unuame
The senior line. Kindreds: Ekpo and Okpohro. This line produces the Ovie.
Uruwhre
Land line. Named with Oteri and Ata. Produces the Oletu — defence of the kingdom.
Owodokpokpo
The lake town. Eru’s first camp. Urie Primary School and the fishing feast sit here. Early door for Christianity into Isokoland.
Halls and polling units also name Oteri-Igbide, Okpohro, Ubrenye and Uruwhre as quarters. Owama is listed with the Okpara bloc in some notes. That is the map this desk can print. A numbered “Igbide has X quarters” gazette has not reached the desk.
Urie Lake, Urie feast, Abame
Urie-Igbide Lake
Also called Ura Lake. Creek to Patani. The landing of Eru. The working water of the clan. Fish ponds named in the old record include Atawa, Ofori, Oyoze and Uyude, watched by the Ogbedio.
The Urie Fishing Festival is kept in the first week of February, three days, at Owodokpokpo. A cannon opens it. Day one is for elders and chiefs only. Then the lake is opened. The Ovie is forbidden to attend. The oldest man and the chiefs preside. In February 2025 the Isoko South chairman said the council would take the feast onto the LGA calendar.
Abame
Also written Abọ-ame and Abame. The other public feast of Igbide. It is not tied to a deity. It grew out of the communal bailing of those ponds. Wrestling and dance. Some churches sit it out. It is the name that sits on older Isoko feast lists beside Urie.
Oroni field — Shell, then Heritage — is the other landmark. About nine wells on the public count. Cassava and groundnut on the dry ground. No second tourist lake is named.
Ovie of Igbide — the roll we can print
The town counts nine Ovies from a stool dated about 1668. Names one to seven are not in a paper this desk will invent. Eight and nine are.
Forty-seven years on the stool. Still the name on this site’s monarchs page of January 2026, which had not yet been updated after the burial and the next installation.
Installed after Obukeni I. Received the staff of office from the Delta State government. Unuame is the line that produces the Ovie.
The lake still opens in February
Eru’s landing is a feast the Ovie may not attend. That is the custom. Follow @IsokoNationNG.
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