Obong Edoho Eket Udosen Inyangudo: A Patriarch (Part One)


Obong Edoho Eket  Udosen Inyangudo was born in the 1840s into the royal family of Udosen Inyangudoito Ekanem Akpaisang in Etebi Idung Akpaisang in present-day Eket Local Government Area of Ibibio nation. He is popularly referred to as Chief Edoho Eket in colonial records.


Etebi is one of the eleven original clans in Eket (now in Eket Offiong clan). Etebi people are widely spread in Eket, Esit Eket, Mbo, Oron, Udung Uko, and Urue Offong/Oruko Local Government Areas. In Ubium clan of Nsit/Ubium Local Government Area, the Etebi people are known as Ise.


Obong Edoho Eket Udosen Inyangudo is generally accepted as “the founder of modern Eket”.  He was a warrior, patriot and a frontline indigenous entrepreneur before the advent of colonial rule. His extensive influence in trade and politics across the Qua Iboe region made him the first choice of the European authorities in Southern/Delta Ibibio land. He thus became a Political Agent and Native Court President and facilitated the European penetration into Southern Ibibio territory. Based on his pedigree, he is eminently qualified to be addressed as “a patriarch”.


His life will be briefly examined from three cardinal perspectives viz: the relationship between his installation as a Political Agent in Qua Iboe area in 1896 and the British pacification of Ibibio land, his contribution to the opening of Eket-Oron Road and the landmark legal victory he facilitated over Ibeno people in the famous case of Ibok Etok Akpan versus Ntiaro and Edoho Eket which the Privy Council (the highest court in the British Empire) made a pronouncement in 1918 in favour of Eket (Ibibio) people, thereby giving the ownership of the Okoiyak (Stubbs Creek) and the Atlantic littoral in perpetuity to the Ibibio.


The British Pacification of Ibibio Land


The coastal communities of Ibibio land such as Eket served as the artery of the European penetration into Ibibio land hinterland. In 1894, Mr. Alfred Ashmal Whitehouse, an agent of the African Association (known as the Sultan of the Qua Iboe), was appointed the Pro-consul in Qua Iboe and was stationed at Eket.


 With the opposition to further penetration of the hinterland by the indigenous people, and by Britain’s own imperial design, the Protectorate’s government under Sir Ralph Moor resolved to subdue the people by force as a prelude to effective colonial administration. The immediate occasion for the presence of the colonial forces in these inland areas was the installation of a “Native Political Agent in Eket District” (Chief Edoho Eket – the Patriarch). 


After the installation ceremony presided over by the Acting Resident of Calabar Province, Horace Bedwell (who came from Calabar the capital of the Niger Coast Protectorate to Eket), information reached the colonial authorities that the people of Mkpok in present-day Nnung Ndem Clan, Onna Local Government Area, then in Eket District had  sacrificed a youth to propitiate their deity since his (Bedwell’s) visit was considered a pollution.


  When Rev.  John Kirk, the Qua Qua Iboe missionary at Okat, heard about the planed human sacrifice by the Mkpok people, he tried to abort it by alerting the District Commissioner at Eket. Unfortunately, the effort was too late to prevent the sacrifice. On that very night, the victim was killed, and his headless body thrown into the bush.


When Bedwell received the information of the human sacrifice by Mkpok people, he decided to investigate the matter by holding a meeting with Chief Ofong, the village head of Mkpok. Bedwell was accompanied by two escorts including Mr. Ereleigh Smith, a coffee planter belonging to George Watts trading concern.


During the visit, fracas ensued. A missionary account states that “Chief Ofong suddenly caught Mr. Smith’s walking stick and broke it, and then seized Mr. Smith by the throat, shouting on his people to save him. Mr. Bedwell had freed Smith from Ofong’s grasp, when the old chief grabbed a spear and lunched at Bedwell. Then there was a general rush-in. Mr. Smith was cut with a machete and he fainted, Mr. Bedwell had his knee cap broken while Mr. Theophilus William, a Sierra Leonean trader and planter at Qua Iboe was badly mauled. They all escaped to the Mission House where Mr. Kirk attended to their injuries”.


Consequently, the colonial government reacted swiftly. An expedition of 180 troops, 400 carriers and six white officers commanded by Major Leonard penetrated Eket from Opobo. Mkpok was shelled and Chief Ofong fled from village to village but all in vain, since any village that offered him protection was to be burnt down. Chief Ofong finally gave himself up and was conveyed to Calabar where he was tried and sentenced to seven years imprisonment.


According to a colonial source “the expedition then marched to Awa Creek, where a flotilla of boats and canoes were waiting to convey them to Eket. They thought they would have subject the Ubium in two or three days, but it took many weeks or more to quell the resistance of the highly-spirited clansmen, who had never allowed strangers to pass through their country, and who all along, had defied authority by continuing to offer their human sacrifice. The Consul’s plea for their chiefs to come to terms and submit was treated with contempt. When at last the troops advanced against them, they made a bold stand, killing and wounding a number of soldiers and carriers”.


Obong Edoho Eket Inyangudo was a monumental figure whose memory is retained via a monument in his community and in the hearts of his Ibibio kinsmen.


Uwem Jonah Akpan

Consultant Historian

Uyo, Akwa Ibom State

Nigeria

31st August, 2025