= Chief Nkereuwem Akpan =

BIOGRAPHY OF OBONG (BARR) NKEREUWEM UDOFIA AKPANull biography)

Chief Nkereuwem Udofia Akpan was born into the traditional ruling house of Nung Udoh, Ibiaku Ikot Oku, Ibiono Ibom Local Council, Akwa Ibom State at the end of the Nigeria/Biafra civil war to a family directly involved in the war on virtually all fronts and on both maternal and paternal sides. His father, a Prince of the ruling house was at some point involved in the distribution of electronic equipments and other gadgets before, during and after the war. He later joined the Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria Limited in 1974 and retired in 1984. Young Nkereuwem Akpan grew up in Uyo, Port Harcourt and Itu in the early seventies and was able to learn and speak a multitude of Nigerian languages such as Efik, Igbo and Ikwere before venturing to speak Ibibio, his supposedly mother tongue much later in life.

ANCESTRY AND FAMILY LINEAGE

Chief Nkereuwem Udofia Akpan’s family has its ancestry firmly rooted in Ibibio folklore. The family history has been successfully traced by chroniclers and historians to about 700BC. He is a scion and direct descendant of His Majesty Obong Udo Adiaha Ikot Oku, founder of Ibiaku Ikot Oku, legendary warrior-king, conqueror and merchant of the Ibiono Ibom people in Akwa Ibom State, in the Niger delta area of Nigeria. (Their ancestral home is located at Obio Ibiono.) A King credited with colossal feats in Ibibio folklore as the very first who rode a horse in the region; swam across the river Cross at a village called Ikot Offiong while fleeing from the advancing British troops and was the very first to read the Bible. This great warrior is also reputed to have kept about a thousand war canoes and equal number of fishing boats in the creeks and estuary of the river cross.(a record surpassed at the time, by only two of his contemporaries in the region: King Jaja of Opobo and Nana the- Itsekiri Chief). The direct children of Ibom were: Ibiono Ibom (first son), Iman (second son); Ikono (third son); Nsit (fourth son). The first son, Ibiono Ibom had 9 children as follows:
First son - Afaha (10 villages) ---family head is the Okuku
Second son- Ibiaku (39 villages) – Generalissimo ‘Otuekong” or family of warriors)
Third son- Ididep (25 villages)
Fourth son-Idoro (18 villages)
Fifth son- Mbiabong (48 villages)
Sixth son- Ntan (18 villages)
Seventh son –Useh (25 villages)
Eight son – Utit Obio (32 villages)
Ninth son- Ikpa Nya (7 villages out of which Ibiaku has 5 and Ntan has 2)

Chief Nkereuwem Akpan’s lineage is of the second male child of Ibiono-Ibom named Ibiaku. This is the clan of the generals and warriors which is located at every boundary between Ibiono and the outside world. His father is one of the direct grandchildren of Obong Udoh Adiaha Ikot Oku, founder of Ibiaku Ikot Oku (which is made up of Ikot Oku, Itu Udo and Oku Obom) The children were as follows:

Chief Dan Akpan Robert Anwa- (family head) who begat Nkereuwem Dan, Ime Dan, Ofonmbuk Dan and several daughters
Elder Edet Akpan Udoh- who begat Emmanuel Edet (M), Sunday Edet (M), Eno Edet (F),Akaniyene Edet (M); Emma Edet (F), Samuel Edet (M)
H.R.H Obong Udoh Akpan Udoh (JP)- Obong Iyaat of Ibiono Ibom who begat Daniel Udoh, Peter Udoh, Jerimaiah Udoh, Joshia Udo, Joshua Udoh, etc.
Chief Udofia Akpan Udoh (biological father of Chief Nkereuwem Akpan) also begat Imoh Udofia Akpan and ofonime Udofia Akpan
Effiong Akpan Ekpo (a.k.a. Udo Eka Iwuot)
Chief Udofia Akpan Robert Anwa
Chief Udo Akpan Robert Robert

His Majesty Obong Ntinya Otuekeong Udoh Adiaha Ikot Oku, founder of Ibiaku Ikot Oku, fabled warrior, conqueror and merchant of yore, whose exploits are often recited in songs in Ibibio folklore is reputed to have captured the following villages in his great conquest and military campaigns: Nkwa Ibiono, Nkwa Ikot Ekwong, Ikot Inyang Ekpe – in the last village he installed his loyal subject Chief Udo Udo Ekpo, as the first village head. At every such conquered village, he left his children at the head of the troops in those villages he founded.-that is the simple reason why villages of the Ibiaku clan are to be found at every boundary of the Ibiono Ibom nation from Ikono, Itu, Uyo, Arochukwu and elsewhere. His Majesty Obong Ntinya Otuekeong Udoh Adiaha Ikot Oku, founder of Ibiaku Ikot Oku and great grand father of Chief Nkereuwem Udofia Akpan is a direct descendant of that royal lineage. (more details on Chief Nkereuwem Akpan’s ancestry)

Parentage and upbringing
His beloved father, Chief Udofla Akpan Udoh Adiaha, of Ibiaku Ikot Oku, is the third male grand child of Otuekeong of His Majesty Otuekeong Udoh Adiaha Ikot Oku- himself a strict disciplinarian and middle class scholar. Widely traveled, businessman and philanthropist of repute, who in 1969 at the height of the civil war, met and married his heartthrob Princess Affiong Udo Udo Ekong from the royal house of Nung Udo Ewah in Ikot Inyang Village in Utit Obio Clan. That union was rewarded with a male child the next year just as the war was winding up. The child was christened “Crown Prince Nkereuwem Udofia Akpan Udoh Adiaha Ikot Oku” meaning “its only life that we worry about, if there is life this child shall achieve everything in life”

Nkereuwem Akpan’s love for lawyers and indeed the legal profession as a whole was influenced albeit unwittingly by his beloved father whose clique of friends and associates were mainly lawyers and soldiers. Hear him: My father had two set of friends. They were either lawyers or soldiers I cannot recall any who were neither of these: Justice Sir Egbert Udo Udoma (ex Supreme Court Justice, Chief Justice and later Governor General of Uganda)

;Justice Edem Koofreh (ex Chief Judge of Cross River State), Justice Hanson Inem (reputable scholar and jurist) ;Barrister Raphael Nana Akpan(Distinguished solicitor and ex Chairman of the Akwa-Ibom State Election Petition Tribunal);Colonel Philip Effiong (accomplished soldier, minister of defence, deputy Supreme Commander and later defacto Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of defunct Republic of Biafra); Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu (Ikemba Nnewi, Oxford graduate Author,

distinguished soldier, pioneer Military Governor of the former Eastern Region, Supreme Commander and Head of State of defunct Biafra);Maj-Gen Lawrence Onoja (right -ex military Governor of Plateau and Katsina States, GOC NA at Jos Division and Principal Staff Officer General Staff Head Quarters) Christopher Okigbo (Author, poet, soldier) ;Chief Ntienyong Udo Akpan OFR (Author, politician,ex Secretary to Government of Biafra) and Brigadier-General Udokaha Jacob Esuene (Pilot, politician and first Military Governor of the then South Eastern State, to name but a few. So I made up my mind to venture into either of the professions” (more pictures)

Chief Akpan’s mother is Princess Affiong Udofia Akpan (Nee Ekong)- Ex beauty queen, singer, dancer, designer and accomplished athlete who attained fame at the Empire Games of post independent Nigeria and scion of the ruling house of Nung Udoh Ewah in Ikot Inyang, Utit Obio clan also in Ibiono-Ibom. Together, the parents not only spared no expenses in providing the boy the best academic beginnings there was in post civil-war Nigeria but groomed the boy in the sciences with a view to choosing for him a career in medicine and surgery. However, the boy seemed to be headed for a different discipline altogether- needless to say that his parents were dismayed at this turn of events. His mother is reported to have stoutly resisted his desire to read law. Indeed on being told that his son desired to pursue a career in law, she had exclaimed in disgust thus: “Lawyers! What manner of professionals? That bunch of saucy, arrogant and slippery congregation-that is the kind of crowd you want to belong to ugh? Your father must hear this: that you of all people, would want to be associated with that brood of shifty, somber men, most of them die young, belong to the occult and are always dressed in black”. The mother was opposed to him taking a career in the legal profession and did not mince words.(More pictures)

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