By Isaac Olamika - Benin
A trip to Igbanke from Ring Road, the commercial nerve centre of Benin City, the Edo State capital, will take at least one hour. For a first time visitor, the signpost to the town which lies in Orhionmwon Local Government Area on the Benin – Asaba Express Road is the Light House Polytechnic; a tertiary institution owned the New Covenant Church.
Just opposite the institution’s gate is the road that leads to the town.
Historically, Igbanke is made up of six autonomous communities namely: Omolua, Ottah, Idumuodin, Ake, Oligia and Igbontor. Each of the six communities has an Enogie – king. The indigenes of the town trace their history to Benin kingdom where they disclosed they migrated from many decades ago. The language spoken in Igbanke sounds similar to the one spoken by their neighbours, the people of Agbor and some of the surrounding towns in the northern part of Delta State.
According to Monday Bowe Ikwuobase, the secretary of Omolua community, who acted as Daily Independent’s tour guide during this correspondent’s visit to the town, the town, for political exigency, is divided into two wards – East and West. He disclosed that the people of the town do not owe allegiance to just one political party, He stated that during the last general elections the electorates in one of the wards voted massively for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while those in the other ward gave the All Progressives Congress (APC) majority of their votes.
The construction of the major link road that enters the town from the Benin –Asaba Road is done by the Professor Oserheimen Osunbor and Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s administration. Professor Osunbor’s administration did the road half way while Comrade Oshiomhole did the remaining half.
In the area of health facilities, Igbanke has a health centre and a general hospital. Investigations by Daily Independent revealed that the general hospital was built by the General Samuel Ogbemudia administration in the old Bendel State and commenced operations on December 4th, 1974. The hospital, which is managed by the Edo State Health Management Board, is bedevilled by a horde of problems which among many others includes shortage of manpower, outdated facilities, dirty environment, lack of power supply from the national grid and shortage of consumables.
The contract for the renovation of the now dilapidated hospital was awarded by the state government in 2012. But it was said to have been abandoned midway by the contractor.
Said Ikwuobase, who makes his living through playing comedy: “We are not happy with the ‘unknown’ contractor that the state government gave the contract to renovate the General Hospital. Nothing has been heard about the contract which has been abandoned since then.
He disclosed that major health issues which the General Hospital cannot handle is often moved to neighbouring Ewohinmi and Agbor General Hospitals “When Governor Oshiomhole came to the town last year we intimated him about the problems bedevilling the hospital but we have heard nothing from him thereafter.”
Igbanke boasts of 21 primary and three secondary schools. A condition considered by the people as a plus for their children’s educational development.
Ikwuobase told Daily Independent that indigenes of Igbanke living in the diaspora last year donated books and writing materials to school pupils in the community as a way of encouraging educational advancement of the town. He listed some of the big names who hail from the town as Chief Henry Omorodion, a Lagos based business mogul and a former President of the state Customary Court of Appeal, Justice Olubo.
In the culture realm, His Royal Highness, Isaac Uwaifo (JP), the Enogie of Omolua, who is also the chairman of Enigie, chiefs and elders forum of Igbanke, recalled that the palace where he presently resides is the second, the first palace having been razed down by British invaders many centuries ago when they banished Oba Ovonramwen N’Ogbaisi.
Uwaifo, a retired Deputy Superintendent of Police of police, who is also the Vice-Chairman of the Orhionmwon Council of Chiefs, said that the issue of criminality viz kidnapping, armed robbery and other capital offences can never be traced to the community.
He maintains stressed that he maintains discipline in the community such that he gives corporal punishment to minor offenders.
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