HISTORY

(Left)HRH Obol Sunday Obono Okoi,Obol Lopon of Mkpani.(Middle)H/H Obol Oden Dan Ubi, Obol and Clan Head of Aduma. (Right) Okpebiri Ofem Eteng, Okpebiri of Mkpani.

The Legacies of our forefathers will remain forever! We are united for a better future.



ABRIEF UNDERSTANDING OF MKPANI PEOPLE
Mkpani as a community in Yakurr Local Government Area is described in many superlatives. The community is prided as the “Lion of Yakurr nation”. It is regarded as a peace loving and the most peaceful community in Yakurr.
Mkpani shared the eastern boundary with Nko, at the west with Ugep and Ekori and southern boundary with Agoi. Mkpani is the heartland of Yakurr nation. Yakurr migratory history attests the fact that, Idomi, Mkpani and Ugep constituted the first phase of migration from Akpa. On the process, Idomi was founded by a fraction of family members who broke up to give succor to a woman on travail. These people and their relatives founded the settlement of Idomi. Then, the Ugep and Mkpani people continued the journey and settle at the present day Ijiman, Ugep. Historical evidence reveals that, at Ugep Mkpani people constituted a kindred group and were called and addressed as “Okurubong”. Shortly after the foundation of Ugep, a splinter group emerged. This group left the main group at Ugep to found a new settlement of Mkpani. Internal disharmony arising out petty misunderstanding and the attraction of vacant lands at the northeast of Ugep was the cause of the emergence of the splinter group. The techniques used to packed out of Ugep to her present homeland greatly influenced the name and identity of Okurubong. A new nomenclature of Yakpanikpani (tricksters) was used on Okurubong by their Ugep brothers, from which Mkpani was derived during the British incursion.
The ritual sacrifice carried out at Ukpawen Ugep, successively during the traditional Lopon Kedungha by the Obol Lopon of Mkpani, confirmed this account.
According to the Obol Sunday Obono Okoi on the 14/3/2012, during his traditional Lopon Kedungha, particularly while addressing Yakurr people at Ukpawen, Ugep, after performing ritual sacrifice told Yakurr people that “the internal disharmony and petty misunderstanding between Ugep brothers and Mkpani brothers was like the misunderstanding between a father and a son, that caused the son to leave the father to establish on his own in order to form a bigger family.
The two communities separated yet united by language, history, culture, national aspirations and developmental goals. They also shared socio-economic and political aims and objectives.