The executive chairman of Diebiri-Batan community in Diebiri Clan, Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State, Mr. Goodluck Ekpebide, has called out what he termed as " the purported Governing Council of Diebiri Clan" to not dabble into the roles played by community executive leadership saying that the days where clan rule over community are over.

Mr. Ekpebide was reacting to a communique released by the Diebiri Governing Council at a meeting the latter held recently in Warri, and published on PENGlobal Community (read the report here: https://www.penglobalinc.com/diebiri-kingdom-governing-council-meets-stakeholders-issues-communique).

Though, said to be an aged-long issue, there have been recent leadership tussle internally within the Diebiri Clan, more particularly as an oil prospecting firm, Kalm Marine and Petroleum Services Limited that was awarded a Petroleum Prospecting License for Ugbanabou Field 213 (PPL 213) by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, is set to commence operations in the area.

According to the Diebiri-Batan chairman, the leadership of the Diebiri Clan should not lower their status to preside over community affairs that has its elected leadership, just as he also debunked the claim of Diebiri as a kingdom.

In his words, "We are Diebiri people and we agree to that, but we have not attained the position of a kingdom. And so, if you say Diebiri Governing Council, then I think that is a kingdom status that we have not yet attained, it is Diebiri Clan. And so I don't recognize them.

"The bone of contention is the way they, the purported governing council, are going about things; they don’t want to attain the clan status, they want to attain the community status. They are a clan, we agree; royalty can go to the clan, but anything that comes to a particular place, it is the community, which is the family therein, that has control and not the clan that wants to rule the communities in diaspora," he stated.

Speaking further on the actions taken to notify the prospecting oil firm on the disputed issue of control, he said, "On Kalm Marine, recently we the family and the Diebiri Clan met with the intent that this is a new field, let’s come together and work things out. Diebiri said they are not the owner of that place.

“Then being mandated by the family, I wrote to Kalm Marine to make the company understand that, Diebiri itself, has given the Diebiri-Batan community power of attorney in February 2nd, 1999. We jointly wrote to Shell then, noting that now that Diebiri is no longer a physical location, the Diebiri people are now with the Batan people, so we call ourselves Diebiri-Batan community. And so, such power on allocation should accrue to the Diebiri-Batan people which will in turn reach the Diebiri Clan.”

Mr. Ekpebide therefore charged the Diebiri Clan, which he noted he is a member of, "to put themselves in a clan status" and that "they should not take the position of community. Clan does not rule community again; they want to take over the rulership of community which is the challenge we are having.

"The name Diebiri-Batan community was not given to us by any company, we agreed together to sign a document that we have, that Shell should call us Diebiri-Batan community. Please, they should attain themselves as a clan to accord respect, they should not intrude into community matters," he stressed.

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