Palace chiefs bicker over land, shrine in Edo State

Tension heightened yesterday in Benin City as two highly respected palace chiefs (names withheld) from Benin Kingdom in Edo State engaged themselves in a war of words over a parcel of land housing a shrine in Ohovbe community of Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area of the state.

The royal fathers who owe their allegiance to the Benin monarch, it was reliably gathered are cousins and have allegedly attempted assassination on each other over the parcel of land accommodating the shrine.

One the chiefs had raised the alarm that his cousin, a senior palace chief allegedly attempted to assassinate him “for daring to erect a storey building on his inherited family land.”

The royal father had claimed that one of the labourers he engaged to assist him in moving into his house was shot on the chest while he narrowly escaped death.

However, the senior chief who is also a chief priest denied his cousin’s allegations saying “what happened was that he tried to harness the land housing our shrine to his compound and I objected because I am the custodian of the shrine which I hold in trust for our revered Oba of Benin.

“So, having failed in his plot, he brought policemen to our house and told them that we tried to assassinate him. As we speak, this matter and all his acts of misdeed are before the Oba of Benin and he has refused to honor invitations from the Oba’s palace.”

The state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Chidi Nwabuzor, said the matter was reported on December 22, 2017, adding that “the police command have stepped up investigation on the natter.”