Amai tradition claims that the founder of the Clan was one Amai, an elephant hunter from Igarra in present day Edo state, who in course of his hunting reached the present site. Seeing that it was a pleasant country, he returned to Igarra and persuaded a number of his friends and relations to accompany him and settle there. Amai had four, sons: Ekwum, Nge, Aguma and Osele who later founded the Umu-ekwum, Amai-nge, Ishikagima, and Umu-osele quarters of Amai. The fifth quarter, an emigrant from Ubulu in Asaba Division founded Umubu, although he married an Amai woman Ekwum was the eldest son of Amai so that his quarter ought to have been the most senior in Amai Clan but Nge cunningly usurped this position by robbing him the custody of Aboh
Nze royal cult. Earlier the Obi of Aboh had invited the children of Amai many years after their father’s death, to come to Aboh and receive the royal cult as the symbol of their authority and alliance with Aboh. The eldest member of the Clan was to be the custodian of the cult. Ekwum requested his junior brother, Nge to carry the cult as they were returning from Aboh but on getting to Amai, Nge refused to hand over the cult to Ekwum and eventually became its priest. This royal/religious authority from Aboh not only robbed Ekwum and his descendants their rightful status in the Clan but earned Nge and his quarter supremacy over all other quarters of Amai so that today the Okpala-uku of Amai-Nge is regarded as the most senior no matter his age among the five Okpala-uku representing the five quarters of Amai Clan.
