In Opute's flight from Benin, his magical “Usu” was put to use by him to test for a favourable place of settlement. In every likely place of settlement, he performed the ritual of thrusting the “Usu” into the ground and pulling it out. If he successfully pulled it out, such a place was regarded as not suitable for settlement. After so many suns and moons in his journey of destiny, after crossing so many rivers and streams, subduing both attacking beasts and men, and testing many other places which the “Usu” rejected, he finally arrived upland in the heart of the Niger Delta. Here, he thrusts his “Usu” into the ground at the exact location where Eri-Okpe Community deity is housed today. At this fortuitous spot, he could not pull the Usu off the ground as was the case in previous “unwanted” locations. The powers that followed, led and backed him, had chosen and approved his divine settlement! He planted the possession tree at this place to possess the land and he built a shrine for the ancestral deity on the same spot. His younger brother, Okpe, later became known as Eri-Okpe after the name of its high priest Okpe. As at today, the age-long family that produces the deity's high priest is known and called the Okpe family or “Olua-Okpe”.