Ekpeye people

The Ekpeye (Àkpà ọ́híá) are a people in southeastern Nigeria with a distinct culture and rulers of a former kingdom. The Ekpeye are usually included as a subgroup of the Igbo people on linguistic and cultural grounds. They speak an Igboid language. Ekpeye people live in the Ahoada (Ahuda) and Ogba-Egbema areas of Rivers State in Nigeria, and were a population of about 80,000 by the 1991 census, the number has increased by about 63% increasing them to approximately 130,000, according to the 2006 census estimates.

History

The Ekpeye have long lived in the land bounded by Orashi River in the West and River Sombreiro in the East; starting out at the northern end from about 3000 BC. Archaeological work showed a steady and very consistent southward movement of the Igbo people, resulting in about AD 1000 in a large settlement mainly at the central geographically elevated area now called Akoh (Dry Land) and Egi. The rise and Expansion of the Benin Kingdom in the following centuries, forced Igbo-speaking but Benin culture-bearing populations down the Niger river into then Ekpeyeland. A socio-political crisis resulted.Ekpeye Clan