Okrika

Okrika is a town and Local Government Area in Rivers State, Nigeria, and the administrative headquarters of the LGA. The LGA is one of the ten Ijaw LGAs in the state, lies in the Rivers East Senatorial District and shares boundaries with Eleme, Ogu/Bolo and Port Harcourt. The town stands on Okrika Island north of the Bonny River, about 56 km from the Bight of Bonny. It began as a fishing settlement of Ijaw migrants and became the capital of the Okrika Kingdom in the early 17th century, took part in the slave trade, and after the 1830s exported palm oil, though less prominently than Bonny and Opobo. By 1912 Port Harcourt had overshadowed it, but the Port Harcourt refinery in 1965 and a jetty on Okrika Mainland restored its commercial relevance, and refined petroleum products are now among its main exports. Fishing remains the main activity, though oil pollution has harmed it.