Opobo is an Ijaw-creole-speaking community in Rivers State and Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.
Opobo
Opobo | |
---|---|
City state | |
Coordinates: 4°30′41″N 7°32′24″E / 4.51139°N 7.54000°E | |
Country | Nigeria |
State | Rivers State and Akwa Ibom State |
Founded by | King Jaja of Opobo |
Government | |
• Amanyanabo | Dandeson Douglas Jaja V |
Time zone | UTC+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, Ukonuwariapu, Kiepirima, Owujie and Tolofari.[1][2]
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.