Aigbofa:


Sir, you just shot yourself in the foot. It was ibos who were denying Nzeogwu right on this forum!! Yet when it is convenient for you, you claim his homeland as yours.
This is duplicity of the highest order!!

Meaningless rubbish!

Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu was Igbo, and no Igbo son or daughter can ever deny that fact!

What Igbos have complained about was the logic of "guilt by association"; the idea that made the Nigerian government participate in the cold-blooded murder of thousands of Igbos with the excuse that the Jan. 15, 1966 coup was an "Igbo coup", as if the Igbo nation planned the coup.

Aigbofa:

Mr. Well schooled, highly intelligent cartographer. Who could have figured this out, other than your highly intelligent self. Even einstein could not have figured out all these "new facts" you highlighted.

Ibos, I tire for una. There are only five eastern states period. And I hardly ever hear anyone outside of these states claiming to be ibo, not so Yorubas outside of Southwest.

The real problem with Nigeria is the huge mass of very ignorant people living within her borders.

As a simple test for the charlatan who posted the above: Mr. Aigbofa, who is Ralph Uwaechue? _{There is hardly any possibility that Mr. Aigbofa can answer this rather simple question, one relevant to this discourse.}

It is exceedingly difficult to engage in meaningful dialogue with folks who live a parochial existence and possess a myopic worldview.

I'M Back

Now lets get back to the lesson. i think music will help yall loosen up a bit so im going to play Igbo music from the different parts of Igbo land :


[flash=200,200]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fW68Cummdw[/flash] From Igbanke, Edo State (which is the Igbo part of Edo state)

[flash=200,200]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnO0ylkHnUA&feature=related[/flash] From Ukwuani LGA, Delta State (Igboland)

[flash=200,200]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkQ9LJeej80[/flash] Ikwerre: Port Harcourt, Rivers State (Igboland)

[flash=200,200]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ki_HcTOsng[/flash] Mbaise, Imo State (Igboland)


Stretching from both sides of the bridge. 

Thank you chyz!

EzeUche22:

Thank you chyz!

Any time bro  . Igbo Kwenu!

@chyz
Thanks once more bros!

I can even understand Ikwerre, Igbanke and Ukwuani much much more than Ngwa, Afikpo and even Owerri.

Someone did a job on Ndigbo.

This job must be undone! Fast!

One Igboland.

RichyBlacK:

The real problem with Nigeria is the huge mass of very ignorant people living within her borders.

As a simple test for the charlatan who posted the above: Mr. Aigbofa, who is Ralph Uwaechue? _{There is hardly any possibility that Mr. Aigbofa can answer this rather simple question, one relevant to this discourse.}

It is exceedingly difficult to engage in meaningful dialogue with folks who live a parochial existence and possess a myopic worldview.

The real problem is morons like you, who parade themselves as champions of a dead cause.
Who is Ralph Uwaechue? Did he discover the cure for cancer or even malaria for that matter?
And what is my knowledge of him got to do with the fact that ibos have only five states in Nigeria?
A Yoruba was once a leader or ACF does that make him an Hausa? Bloody nincompoop.

Onlytruth:



I can even understand Ikwerre, Igbanke and Ukwuani much much more than Ngwa, Afikpo and even Owerri.


One Igboland.

You can understand Ikwerre, but find it harder to understand Ngwa? 

Afikpo is very hard to understand! I know it is Igbo, but that dialect. . .  I would have though those Igbo people in Afikpo would not claim Igbo the way their dialect is so different from everyone else. Those northern Igbo dialects are very hard to understand. Eastern Igbo is easier to understand while southern Igbo is more pleasant to the ears.

@EZEUCHE, THE MAP YOU PSOTED IS FRAUDULENT AND DUBIOUS, IF WARRI IS NOT PART OF ITSHEKIRI LAND, HOW COME THE OLU OF WARRI IS ITSHEKIRI, STOP FOOLING YOUR CO FOOLS LIKE philip006

Aigbofa:

The real problem is morons like you, who are parade themselves as champions of a dead cause.
Who is Ralph Uwaechue? Did he discover the cure for cancer or even malaria for that matter?
And what is my knowledge of him got to do with the fact that ibos have only five states in Nigeria?
A Yoruba was once a leader or ACF does that make him an Hausa? Bloody nincompoop.

Once SEFAGO always SEFAGO.  

You can change your username one million times, you cannot change your character summarized -
run out of logical options and brain power-> resort to insults.
Pathetic.

seanet02:

@EZEUCHE, THE MAP YOU PSOTED IS FRAUDULENT AND DUBIOUS, IF WARRI IS NOT PART OF ITSHEKIRI LAND, HOW COME THE OLU OF WARRI IS ITSHEKIRI, STOP FOOLING YOUR CO FOOLS LIKE philip006

Why should we be concerned with Warri? This map is about Alaigbo. Warri is outside of Alaigbo so we could care less. Once you get past Kwale and Agbo, the Igbo don't care which cities exist outside of Western Alaigbo

EzeUche22:

You can understand Ikwerre, but find it harder to understand Ngwa? 

Afikpo is very hard to understand! I know it is Igbo, but that dialect. . .    I would have though those Igbo people in Afikpo would not claim Igbo the way their dialect is so different from everyone else. Those northern Igbo dialects are very hard to understand. Eastern Igbo is easier to understand while southern Igbo is more pleasant to the ears.

I was shocked by the clarity of Igbanke!
Ikwerre even shocked me more!
I wasn't shocked by Ukwuani. 

Like I said, someone did a job on Ndigbo.

I think it is left for us to undo that job.

Onlytruth:

Once SEFAGO always SEFAGO.  

You can change your username one million times, you cannot change your character summarized -
run out of logical options and brain power-> resort to insults.
Pathetic.

Did I insult him first? Lying ibo dregs.  

I ran out of brain power to debate a couple of monkeys? In your dreams.

just because Igbos may only have"5 states" does not mean AlaIgbo stops at the border of those five states.
DUH!

THE AMAKA:

just because Igbos may only have"5 states" does not mean AlaIgbo stops at the border of those five states.
DUH!

Agreed, but not everyone in those areas claimed as ibo by EzeUche regard themselves as ibo. Is that not right? If they say they are not ibos, why insist they are?

Onlytruth:

I was shocked by the clarity of Igbanke!
Ikwerre even shocked me more!
I wasn't shocked by Ukwuani.  

Like I said, someone did a job on Ndigbo.

I think it is left for us to undo that job.

Igbanke is quite shocking!  

For a while I did not know that Igbos migrated that far! 2 years ago, I didn't know Igbos were present in Benue State until I met an Igbo whose village is located in Benue State. We Igbos really enjoyed travelling all over the place. And let us not discuss the Aro who migrated into Cameroon!

Aigbofa:

Agreed, but not everyone in those areas claimed as ibo by EzeUche regard themselves as ibo. Is that not right? If they say they are not ibos, why insist they are?

It is not up to them to decide what they claim. If they speak my language, have my culture, that makes them an Igbo.

It is not up for them to decide. If they want to stop being Igbo, they better stop speaking my language and using our culture.

Like the Ikwerre. Many say there are not Igbo, yet they speak Igbo. Well what language should they be speaking? Ijaw or Ogoni? They didn't lose their language.

EzeUche22:

Why should we be concerned with Warri? This map is about Alaigbo. Warri is outside of Alaigbo so we could care less. Once you get past Kwale and Agbo, the Igbo don't care which cities exist outside of Western Alaigbo

IF YOU ACCEPT THAT THE MAP IS INCORRECT OR DUBIOUS, THEN THE PROFESSOR GAVE YOU THIS MUST HAVE BOUGHT HIS DEGREE

I don't understand what they're saying in the Igbanke and Ukwuani one.

EzeUche22:

It is not up to them to decide what they claim. If they speak my language, have my culture, that makes them an Igbo.

It is not up for them to decide. If they want to stop being Igbo, they better stop speaking my language and using our culture.  

Like the Ikwerre. Many say there are not Igbo, yet they speak Igbo. Well what language should they be speaking?  Ijaw or Ogoni? They didn't lose their language.

This entire response is part of this Igbo/not-Igbo problem.

EzeUche22:

It is not up to them to decide what they claim. If they speak my language, have my culture, that makes them an Igbo.

It is not up for them to decide. If they want to stop being Igbo, they better stop speaking my language and using our culture.  

Like the Ikwerre. Many say there are not Igbo, yet they speak Igbo. Well what language should they be speaking?   Ijaw or Ogoni? They didn't lose their language.

Not just the language, the entire philosophy that goes with a language. I even say the "spirit" of the language.

If you are Igbo, and you listen to the words of those musicians in Igbanke and Ikwerre, you'll connect with their cultural and spiritual milieu.

EzeUche22:

It is not up to them to decide what they claim. If they speak my language, have my culture, that makes them an Igbo.

It is not up for them to decide. If they want to stop being Igbo, they better stop [b]speaking my language and using our culture. [/b]

Like the Ikwerre. Many say there are not Igbo, yet they speak Igbo. Well what language should they be speaking? Ijaw or Ogoni? They didn't lose their language.

This is coming from the same people who accuses Nigeria of forcing them into a union against their will. Ibo duplicity knows no bounds!

ChinenyeN:

This entire response is part of this Igbo/not-Igbo problem.

Igbo should be broken down to someone whose forebears spoke the Igbo language with similar cultural characteristics. (That does not mean the same)

My Aro people are probably more mixed than some of these people running away from their Igbo identity, yet we still consider ourselves Igbo. In Arochukwu, many people speak both Igbo and Ibibio and have Ibibio surnames.

TSEKIRI PRESENTATION TO THE PRESIDENTIAL (DANJUMA) COMMITTEE ON WARRI CRISIS ON THURSDAY 15TH MAY 2003 AT THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE HEADQUARTERS, ABUJA

Itsekiri were amo ng the earliest people known to have inhabited, in time out of memory, the Niger Delta in what is now called Nigeria. Reference is made to historians who record the presence of the Itsekiri among the Urhobo and the Ijo in this area in the 15th century. Particularly, G.T. stride B.A. & C. Ifeka PhD: Peoples & Empires of West Africa page 202 is handed in. The Itsekiri are a distinct ethnic group known to God as the German, the Welsh, the Fulani, the Ibo, the Ibibio and the Jukun are known to God.

In customary law in Nigeria, the Itsekiri, like the Yoruba, Nupe, Efik, Hausa and others, are an organic corporation; they have a soul and are indestructible. No matter their small size, the Itsekiri are Nigerians and have the full rights of Nigerian citizenship like the Ijaw, Ibo, Urhobo and others, and have to be so protected. Today international protocols on protection of Minority rights, Human rights, and what have you, transcend national sovereignty. We have a homeland in Nigeria that is different and distinct from the homelands of the other 350 - odd ethnicities in Nigeria. Warri is our homeland (At this point, we hand in a copy of the Memorandum presented to the Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo GCFR on 7th April 2003 pages 4 – 6 (in the hope they had access to the 4 copies handed in on that day). That section of the memo develops the evolution to its present form of the name ‘Warri’ from Iwere (Itsekiri name) through Awyri, Warree etc.

The Itsekiri Monarchy came from Benin towards the close of the 15th century to reign over a loosely associated sub–Yoruba communities who had migrated from Ijebu, Owo and Igala and had lived as Itsekiri in the area. To date the Itsekiri have had 19 Olus



(b) Geographical Delineation

The Itsekiri homeland – a 1,520 square mile territory – is precisely described by several authors e.g. Obaro Ikime PhD (an Isoko) as:

“The Itsekiri inhabit the North Western extremity of the Niger Delta in area bounded approximately by latitudes 50 20” and 60 N and longitudes 50 5” and 50 40’’ East. Their neighbours are Bini to the North, the Ijaw to the South, the Urhobo to the East and the Yoruba of Ondo province to the North-West” (Italics ours for emphasis)

The following 9 maps confirming the foregoing delineation are explained and handed in:

· Collin & Longman’s Nigeria Ethnic groups

· P. C. Lloyd’s The Itsekiri Country

· Prof. (then Dr.) Obaro Ikime’s The Itsekiri Country

· Prof. Onigun Otite (an Urhobo): Ethnographic map of Bendel State

· Prof. Anene J. C.: Coast City States 1885 – 1906

· John Anderson’s West African States and Peoples in 1800

· G. T. Stride B. A. & Caroline Ifeka PhD: Benin in 1550.

· Prof. J.F. Ade Ajayi, The Delta State & their Neighbours

· Major Arthur Glyn Leonard’s Southern Nigeria Map 1906



(c) Historical Descriptions of Warri as Itsekiri homeland.

Several authors have done this job well but we will cite the following few for our purpose here today. From the memo to the President on 7th April 2003, we read these quotes: Page 3, Line 11 from bottom:

Amoury Talbot, a Colonial Administrator….in his book Peoples of Southern Nigeria, 1926 vol. 1 page 317 says of Warri.

“The Jekri (Itsekiri) were called Iwerri and from this their town was given its present name, Warri”.

Prof. Richard Gray….in the Cambridge History of Africa vol. 4 at Page 228 says of Warri.

“By the 18th century, Warri is to be considered as an independent Itsekiri political state comprising also a few Urhobo and Ijo”

Prof. Obaro Ikime in his Merchant Prince of the Niger Delta says at Page 69:

“The Consul – General visited Warri on 19 August 1891. He reported that the Chiefs of Warri were Itsekiri who were under Nana…”

The year 2002 Catholic Directory and Liturgical calendar writing under A Brief History of Nigeria says of Warri.

“Warri had a flourishing Christian community at the Olu’s Court. Many Warri rulers from the 16th century were confessing Christians. A son of such ruler was even sent to train as a priest in Portugal…”

Then we explain and hand in the December page of Mobil Calendar for the year 2000 which further elaborates on Warri vis-a-vis Christianity and medieval Europe.

As evidence we point out that at least eight Christian Olus had reigned in Warri Kingdom from the late 16th century to Mid 19th century (they all had their baptismal names) The first church/ monastery built in Nigeria was St. Anthony in the late 17th century in Warri. The site of the church is still called Satoni (Itsekiri form) today, and Kapila is the Itsekiri name for Chapel also in Warri. At this point the Chairman, Gen. Danjuma expresses surprise that he had thought the first church in Nigeria was built in Calabar. We emphasize it was in Badagry in the early 19th century marking the second advent of Christianity in the area today called Nigeria. The first advent had begun in Warri and Benin and closed down.



(2) Ijaw Homeland

From the earliest times, Ijaw homeland has been known to be different and distinct from Itsekiri Country. All the nine maps handed in have clearly borne this fact out. But we will refer to the following authoritative historians:

Prof. J. F. Ade Ajayi in his History of West Africa vol. 1 2nd Edition 1976 at Page 334 records:

“The Portuguese Captain, Pereira, summarizing his country’s knowledge of the West African Coast at the beginning of the 16th century, saw all the coast from the Forcados River to Bonny River (Rio Real) occupied by Ijo – Jos. This stretch of Coast does, in fact, correspond to that currently occupied by the Ijo”.(Italics ours for emphasis)

The historian adds that Ijaw did not appear beyond the Forcados River to the West till about mid – 17th century.

Obaro Ikime in his Merchant Prince of the Niger Delta says:

“Itsekiri land is watered by three large rivers, the Benin, the Escravos and the Forcados…”

G.T. Stride and C. Ifeka in their Peoples & Empires of West Africa at P. 202 says

“…. Elmina became an important trading station on the Gold Coast. To the East, the Portuguese Governor of Elmina, Pacheco Pereira found that the Itsekiri and Urhobo of the Niger Delta were already living around the Forcados River in about 1500. He also saw a people he called ‘Jos” (Ijo) in the Rio Real area around the site of Bonny….By 1700 they (Ijo) had moved west towards the Benin River” (Part of Itsekiri homeland) (Italics ours for emphasis)

Even the late Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro, an Ijaw nationalist and revolutionary in his book The twelve–Day Revolution edited by Tony Tebekaemi at Page 57 precisely defines Ijaw homeland as follows:

“The Niger Delta we shall consider is strictly the area occupied by the Ijaws, the aboriginal tribe of the Delta. It spans the Coast of the Bight of Biafra, from the Forcados River to the Opobo River and upstream to the Niger tributaries of the Nun and Forcados Rivers”. (Copy of this page is handed in). (Italics ours for emphasis)

Nowhere have these notable historians described the homeland of the Ijaw people as extending beyond Forcados River westward. It is between Forcados River and River Bonny/ Opobo. Those Ijaw elements now found in the west migrated thereto after 1700.



(3) Urhobo Homeland:

Again we emphasize that Urhobo have their country different and distinct from Itsekiri homeland as shown in all the maps handed in. R. E. Bradbury in his work Benin Kingdom with P.C. Lloyd at page 127 describes Urhobo homeland as follows:

“They (Urhobo) occupy an area about 2,000 square miles (bigger than Itsekiri country’s 1,520 square miles) bounded on the North by Benin Kingdom on the East by the Ibo and the Niger River, on the South by the Ijaw and on the West by the Itsekiri country”.(Italics ours for emphasis)

It is now crystal-clear that each of these three ethnic groups has its traditional or historical homeland or country. Your Highness, (the Obi of Owa – the Panel’s Vice Chairman) will clearly appreciate this fact. Thanks to God, Late Prince Jegbefume of Owa was in our 1975-79 Cabinet in Bendel State Government. He helped your Highness focus on boundary problems between your domain and that of the Obi of Agbor then, and hence Your Highness’ domain now is precisely known and defined. Our book A History of Warri of 1988 sought to highlight this ethnographic situation in Warri and we can recall your Highness’ appreciation of our effort. Today that problem looms larger.



(4) Early British Rule

From the beginning, the British, after taking into Nigeria Itsekiri country on 1st January 1914 at the Amalgamation, continued to identify Itsekiri with Warri, even though other ethnic groups were administered from Warri Province. When Independence was near, as part of the local autonomy of the then existing Regions, the Western Nigeria government introduced the Local Government Reform Law of 1952 (No. 1 of 1953): Divisional Councils (approximating to homelands) were created; each of the five ethnicities in Delta State today had its councils; some one, some two. The WRLN 176 of 1955 creating Warri Divisional Council is handed in:

(a) Western & Eastern Urhobo Divisional Councils

(b) Western Ijaw Divisional Council

(c) Isoko Divisional Council (subsequently excised from Eastern Urhobo upon their agitation that they were not Urhobo)

(d) Today’s Anioma (Western Ibo) had their Divisional councils

Those Divisional Councils of 1952 law have today been subdivided into councils thus:

Western & Eastern Urhobo 8 Councils

Western Ijaw 3 Councils

Isoko 2 Councils

Warri 3 Councils

Western Ibo (Anioma) 9 Councils

It is interesting to note the detailed delineation of Warri Divisional Council from Urhobo Councils on the legal notice presented and we promise to send later the map WRLN 176 of 1955 accompanying the gazette.

Over the years, Warri has always been used to identify Itsekiri Clubs/Associations eg. Warri National Union, Warri League, Warri Progressive Society and Warri Ladies’ Vanguard. No other ethnic group has ever done so.



(5) Governor Col. John Dungs’ Mischief

If Itsekiri were some people, they would be cursing Col. Dungs that the innocent blood of their people killed be upon him, his children and children’s children. But they don’t do it, but hope his conscience would be pricking him.

Up to 1991, there was only one Warri Council. That year Warri North was created with headquarters at Koko leaving the Warri South with headquarters in Warri. The new Warri North had 7 Itsekiri wards and 4 Ijaw wards, and Warri South 8 Itsekiri wards and 2 Urhobo wards. In 1996 following Itsekiri request to the Mbanefo Committee set up by the Federal Government to recommend the creation of more Local Governments, a Warri South West was recommended. The Ijaw in Warri did not ask for any local government creation. From nowhere, and seeking to preempt the Federal Government announcement, Col. Dungs in December 1996 mischievously announced the creation of Warri Central Local Government with headquarters in Warri G.R.A. and Warri South (already existing) with headquarters in Ogbe-Ijaw.

The Federal Government appropriately announced its own creation of Warri South West with headquarters in Ogidigben by Gazette No. 36 of 1996 and apparently further erased Col. Dungs’ ungazetted mischievous creation by Gazette No. 7 of 1997. This mischief by Governor Dungs led to the destruction of Itsekiri lives and property from 1997 to 1999. In 1998 at Abuja Vice Admiral Akhigbe as the deputy head of State, asked Chief E. K. Clarke at a meeting to produce the gazette which was the basis of the Ijaw claim. There was none. The Asagba of Asaba, representing the Delta State Government of Col. Dungs, claimed to have heard the announcement on the radio about the creation of Warri South local Government with Ogbe-Ijaw as headquarters. He was asked to authenticate his claim and failed. Vice Admiral Akhigbe warned that such a frivolous claim in such a serious matter was below the dignity of a Traditional Ruler.

(6) Governor Ibori’s Role

When Civilian regime was ushered in, in 1999 Governor Ibori handled the negotiations, and came near to resolution when it was agreed that an impartial panel of retired judges and lawyers be set up to look into areas where competent courts had given judgements over land areas. Those judgments, if confirmed genuine, would be held as sacrosanct in favour of those who won the cases. Governor Ibori somersaulted and then unilaterally relocated the headquarters from Ogidigben to Ogbe-Ijaw on an appeasement drive. Apparently Ibori did not learn from the appeasement policy of Neville Chamberlain of Britain who conceded the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia to Hitler to have peace in “our life time” only to face another Hitler’s call to take over Poland. Even with having Ogbe-Ijaw (illegally) as headquarters of Warri South West Local Government, the Ijaw are yet calling for more wards and drawing a new map to take over Itsekiri homeland.

(7) Olu of Warri

This is an old monarchy as can be seen from the Catholic document of the year 2002 and the Mobil calendar of the year 2000 as referenced above. We may add:

· As far back as 1607 the King of Portugal made a decree in which the “King of Warri” and Prince Domingo son of “Olu of Warri” were mentioned.

· According to Dapper in 1644 the reigning “King of Warri” was a mulatto. (Dr. S. O. Biobaku & H. U. Beier in Journal of Yoruba & Related Studies).

· They have 19 Olus to date from 1480, and 8, from the 16th to 19th centuries, were Christian Olus.

· The 16th Olu Akengbuwa died on 14th June 1848 and there was an 88-year interregnum. By 1851 the British had come into Itsekiri country and they stayed put till Independence in 1960. At the reinstatement of the monarchy in 1936 (after 88 years) Warri was the name of a province in Nigeria. The British could not allow Itsekiri to have their Olu called “Olu of Warri” since the Urhobo, Ijaw, Kwale & Isoko administered from the Province would rightly be enraged that the Itsekiri Olu was recognized as their King. Thus the Colonial Government recognized him at coronation in 1936 as Olu of Itsekiri. Itsekiri agitation on this matter continued till 1951. As Independence drew near, the British left the locals to direct affairs; thus in 1951, the Western Region Government in its wisdom, having regard to the historicity of the Itsekiri claim, dropped the name ‘Warri’, from the Province, replaced it with ‘Delta’ and conceded Warri as Itsekiri homeland. Thus the title of the Itsekiri Olu rightly became ‘Olu of Warri’. The other ethnicities rejoiced to have ‘Delta’ replacing ‘Warri’ as their province, while the Itsekiri on their part rejoiced that they had got back their ancient name and title. The change had nothing personal to do with Chief Awolowo as the Ijaw and Urhobo have so shamelessly claimed. Even Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, then opposed to Chief Awolowo, had openly canvassed the change in earlier years in his Press

Like for other first class obas in Western Region, the WRLN 335 of 1958 created minor chiefs in his domain including chiefs in Ogbe-Ijaw, Gbaramatu and Egbeoma. In the old Mid-West and Bendel State, the MSLN 66 of 1973 and The Traditional Rulers and Chiefs Edict of 1979 respectively all accorded this same status and recognition till the Itsekiri were forcefully brought into the Delta State in 1991 against their opposition.

The katakata to destroy Itsekiri homeland and our monarchy began as soon as we came into Delta State till today when things have got to the nadir of total extinction drive.

8. Itsekiri Population

All talks about Itsekiri as minority in the 3 Warri Local Government Areas are bunkum. The only acceptable census figures over the last forty years are the 1963 figures. The subsequent census of 1973 failed as others that followed. The 1991 figures were universally discredited as grossly under-enumerated. Even the Warri North figures were largely invalidated by the census Tribunal in Suit No. CT/DT/9/LG 13 of June 1993. So let us use the 1963 figures and extrapolate them at 2.5% annual growth rate and find the approximate and probable populations of the 5 ethnic nationalities in Delta State. We will strengthen this computation by introducing the actual figures given by Bendel State Government in 1976.



Table A

1963 Census figures for Warri Division (now the 3 Warri Local Government Areas)

Ethnic Group Population % of Total

1. Itsekiri 92,711 64%

2. Ijaw in 3 enclaves 20,702 14%

3. Urhobo of Agbassa 2,000 1.4%

4. Urhobo of Idimi Sobo of Okere 480 0.3%

5. Others: Urhobo, Edo, Hausa, Ibo 29,167 20%

Total 145,060 100%

Source: 1963 Census figures (Warri Division)





Table B

1963 1976 1986 1996 2003

Urhobo 625,893 716,140 1,090,000 125,000 1,800,000

(supposedly inclusive

of Isoko figure about ¼)

Isoko (Not available) 184,800 240,000 310,000 380,000

Western Ijaw 231,746 322,350 410,900 510,000 630,000

Western Ibo 315,998 730430 1,120,000 1,310,000 1,830,000

Warri 145,060 227,000 279,000 350,000 430,000

Itsekiri 92,711 125,000 160,000 220,000 301,000



Note: Source of 1963 figures: Obafemi Awolowo’s Thoughts on Nigerian Constitution

· 1976 figures sourced from Bendel Bulletin No 16 of July/September 1976 except Itsekiri figure based on 2.5% annual growth.

· 1986, 1996 & 2003 figures based on 2.5% annual growth.



From the figures in Tables A and B above, how can one call Itsekiri minority in their homeland? And from the following ward structures, based on relative population strengths since 1955, Itsekiri have always been the majority group in Warri, their homeland:

(a) First-ever Local Government election in rural Warri Division in 1955:

Benin River (Itsekiri) 11 wards

Koko (Itsekiri) 6 “

Gborodo (Itsekiri) 5 “ Ode-Itsekiri (Itsekiri) 7 “

Gbaramatu (Ijaw) 3 “

Egbeoma (Ijaw) 5 “

Ogbe-Ijoh (Ijaw) 3 “

Total 40 “

Source WRLN No. 176 of 1955.

(b) Warri North 1991 at creation:

Itsekiri wards 7

Ijaw wards 4

(c) Warri south 1991 at creation:

Itsekiri wards 8

Urhobo wards 2

(d) Warri South West 1997 at creation:

Itsekiri wards 6

Ijaw wards 4

Call Itsekiri a micro-minority group in Nigeria, but not in Warri where they have always out-numbered the settler ethnic groups.



9. New Ijaw ethnic map

A new Ijaw map of Ethnic Nations is handed in. Ijaw nation is shown to occupy the whole Niger Delta bounded on the West by Yoruba, North by Edo and Ibo and on the East by Efik / Ibibio. Itsekiri, Isoko and even Urhobo are effaced from the map. The Ijaw presented this map “to the entire Nigerian people and the World Community” The map dove-tails into their Secession project backed by their letter through Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Ref. MOSIEND/S/003 Vol.1/01 of 14 July 1994 to the British Government and another to President Clinton MOSIEND-USA/03/SEC/Vol.1/95 of 23 January 1995. Copies of these letters are handed in.



10. Urhobo of “Warri District” – Treaties

· Ejebba Treaty of 7 March 1893

· Agbassa Treaty of 14 March 1893

· Ogunu Treaty of 30 March 1893

· Igbudu Treaty of March 1893

Having lost all their land claims to Itsekiri in the law courts over Warri township, the Urhobo of Agbassa now resort to propaganda on purported Treaties they claim the British made with them over Warri in 1893.

The purported Treaties were forged, and therefore, are fake documents, and copies are handed in. It takes two to make a Treaty. No representative of Her Britannic Majesty signed any of the Treaties as you find with genuine ones eg Itsekiri, Asaba and others. They are stamped with Forcados Vice-Consulate stamp. Forcados had no Vice-Consulate, an administrative structure only within the Niger Coast Protectorate (NCP). Forcados was within the Royal Niger Company (RNC) jurisdiction and had nothing to do with NCP.

Flint, an official of the R.N.C. described the Treaties as forged.

(Obaro Ikime’s Mechant Prince of the Niger Delta page 63)

NCP had 6 Vice-consulates: Benin District, Warri, Brass, New Calabar, Bonny and Opobo. Forcados was not one of them

11.(a) A purported Assessment Report of 1928

Chief E.K. Clarke is fond of making this reference; he may have made it already in his sessions with you. Let us here puncture it. It is said to be an Assessment Report sent by a Colonial Officer, P.P. Lynch on July 16,1928 to the Secretary, Southern Provinces, Lagos stating that:

“The original settlement…, around which population settled, is known as Ogbe-Ijoh and the name is still retained to define that portion of the town around the present market. As the name indicated Ogbe-Ijoh was originally an Ijaw settlement and translated literally means, I am informed ‘(t)he fish market”….The Ijaw fisher, more always at home in them (sic) canoes than on land, fished up and down the stretch of water which now forms the Warri anchorage and made use of the settlement to sell their catches. In the main, the purchases came from the Old Established Sobo settlement of Agbassa and the more recent Jekri village of Okere…, Beyond the swamp in a westerly direction, stood the comparatively large village of Agbassa, while on the side, the growing hamlet of Okere was rapidly extending its boundaries…….Intercommunication between these villages and the riverside settlement was maintained by means of ‘bush’ paths which meandered around the edge of the swamp” (National Archive File No.20653)

On this assessment report, apparently, Dr. Obaro Ikime founded his theory of ownership of Warri by the three ethnic groups of Urhobo, Ijaw and Itsekiri. Chief E.K. Clarke is always silent on the rank of the Colonial Officer (a District Officer or Resident) that made this report and where he was based and for what purpose.

To any reasonably objective person, this report was most highly unlikely made by the purported officer. Given the close colonial society of that period, it would be unthinkable for an Administrative officer in Warri to ever interfere in a matter that was before a colonial judge. In 1925 the Agbassa community had already taken Chief Dore Numa to court before Justice T.D. Maxwell for an account of rents collected on Agbassa lease and failed.

Then in 1926, after getting Herbert Macaullay (a Lagos-based surveyor) to survey virtually the whole of present-day Warri including Ogbe-Ijoh and Agbassa (minus Okere and Ugbowangue), the Agbassa Community sued Dore Numa (for Itsekiri) claiming the ownership of the lands in dispute and again failed in 1927. Then they went on appeal to the Full Court (now Supreme Court) in Lagos. Could any sane colonial administrator in Warri have forwarded any such quoted assessment report in 1928 in these circumstances? To achieve what? To overturn a judgment on appeal?

Granted that the officer rushed into where angels feared to tread, and sought administratively to over rule the judgment of 1927, then we would posit that the Full Court judgment of 1929 that still favoured the Itsekiri had killed the purported assessment report of 1928. When the Agbassa appeal finally failed in the Privy Council in 1933, we think sane people would never, never raise the issue of this dead and buried Assessment Report. Honestly, in ending, we believe the purported Assessment Report was forged like the Agbassa Treaties.

(b) Idimi-Sobo of Okere

Idimi is Itsekiri word for quarters. There are 6 quarters in Okere within the Warri metropolis: This matter is fully treated at pages 9 and 10 in the memo presented to the President on 7th April, copy of which we have given you. Idimi-Sobo is the newest and one for settlers, the other five are populated by Itsekiri. All documents including court matters up to 15 years ago still bear the name-Idimi-Sobo. Chief Benjamin Okumagba, an ambitious Urhobo, born in Idimi Sobo, Okere uses his strong contact with Urhobo Progressive Union (UPU) to foul relations in Okere over his family’s court victory in regard to a possessory title to 281.1 acres of farmland in Okere. What has he not done? Change Idimi-Sobo to Okere-Urhobo, to Okere-Urhobo Clan and now Okere-Urhobo Kingdom in less than 15 years. Itsekiri Community in Gbolokposo in 1997 won at the Supreme court radical title to about 2,000 acres in neighbouring Uvwie (Urhobo) Local Government Area. They do not rubbish Uvwie people as Chief Okumagba in his “one-man Okere kingdom”

Urhobo and Ijaw preoccupation is to seek to discredit, albeit, unsuccessfully, the history of Itsekiri links to Warri, because they have none of these links whatsoever to talk about. This self-evident truth of Thomas Jefferson, who at his first inaugural on 4th March 1801 warned: “All too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate which would be oppression” - now being expressed in Warri as pogrom and ethnic cleansing.



12. Itsekiri Fears

(a) Willinks’ Minority Report of 1958

Itsekiri strong representation before the Commission was part of the consideration that informed the insertion of the Protection Clause in the Mid West Constitution of 1964. The clause then covered not only Itsekiri, but Isoko, Akoko-Edo and, ironically, by hindsight, Western Ijaw. The latter were then regarded as a minority group. Then there were no oil, gas, Ijaw National Congress and Ijaw Youth Council. There was no Egbessu juju and there were no Ijaw warriors!

(b) Prophecy of Urhobo Domination

A visionary Urhobo leader, Prof. Sam. Oyovbaire and one time Federal Minister of Information in a pamphlet in 1980 titled For those against the creation of Delta State, prophetically cautioned:

“In the case of the proposed Delta State, the Urhobo people, within the psychosis of a dominant group, would very soon go about threatening the other groups by their numbers. They would demand and boast that the capital of the state is destined for them, the Governorship for them, Chief Justice for them, Permanent Secretaries for them, all markets for them; everything for them. They would demand soon that the title of the traditional ruler of the Itsekiri will be changed from the Olu of Warri to Olu of Itsekiri; that the whole of Itsekiri land belongs to them ……and so all land settlement belongs to the Urhobo……The easiest way to destroy the case for a Delta State is for Urhobo and their fifth columnists to go about harassing all other peoples by the “Okumgba (Sic Okumagba) kind of politics”, the politics of calumny, villification and with chauvinism”.

(Photocopy of the appropriate page of this quote is handed in).

He might just have added the Ijaw also. Here we are, we cannot be more dead than the dead. We want to get out of Delta State today, next year or when ever.



(13). All Governments have recognized our situation. We are amazed that a lawyer like Chief E.K. Clarke talks glibly that successive governments in Delta have failed to implement Commission Reports due to Itsekiri influence. We wonder whether his tenure in Government was not enough to enlighten him on the difference between a Commission Report and White Paper on it. Government implementation of Commission Reports is via its White Paper, at least in Nigeria.

(a) Justice Omosun Commission Report on Warri. We hand in the Bendel State Government White Paper on it which till today has not been fully implemented because of the intransigence of the Urhobo group affected.

(b) Justice Nnamake Agu Commission Report – This is trumpeted daily by Chief E.K Clarke and his Urhobo friend, Chief Benjamin Okumagba. We hand in the Delta State Government White Paper that implemented it. We ask, are they not aware of it


EZE UCHE STOP TRYING TO CLAIM ITSHEKIRI, THEY DONT RELATE WITH IGBOS PERIOD

EzeUche22:

Igbo should be broken down to someone whose forebears spoke the Igbo language with similar cultural characteristics. (That does not mean the same)

My Aro people are probably more mixed than some of these people running away from their Igbo identity, yet we still consider ourselves Igbo.

Thank you for saying this.
That proves that politics played a big role in all these Igbo denials.
Early Igbo politicians like Zik tried to united us under one party -NCNC but he did not complete that unity project before the Nzeogwu coup of Jan 1966, which threw a huge spanner in the works.
We are just recovering now with Uwechue leading Ohanaeze.

EzeUche22:

My Aro people are probably more mixed than some of these people running away from their Igbo identity, yet we still consider ourselves Igbo. In Arochukwu, many people speak both Igbo and Ibibio and have Ibibio surnames.

That's fine and all, BUT, that is YOUR Aro people, not someone else's group. Please keep that in mind.

seanet 02,

Who is claiming Itsekiri?  

We Igbos are not claiming them nor do we want to.

My map is an accurate portrayal of Igboland and it doesn't include Warri. This is not about the Itsekiri. Nor are any Igbo on this thread claiming Warri. To be honest, I thought Warri was part of Urhobo land?

ChinenyeN:

I don't understand what they're saying in the Igbanke and Ukwuani one.
This entire response is part of this Igbo/not-Igbo problem.

Hope is not completely lost if we continue to have people like you and Chiogo who are not afraid to tell the truth. Let the Ostriches continue to bury their heads in the sand.

[flash=200,200]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wh66AFwZag[/flash] Onitsha, Anambra State (Igboland)

[flash=200,200]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waml7_I_FSg[/flash] Ngwa, Abia State (Igboland)/ Although not typical Ngwa dialect.

Enjoy!

Chyz, that song was not in Ngwa. Even, the song was produced and put out for our (us Ngwa) socio-politico-cultural organization in USA, but once it was out and people heard it, there was mass disapproval, because it wasn't in Ngwa.

ChinenyeN:

That's fine and all, BUT, that is YOUR Aro people, not someone else's group. Please keep that in mind.

Yes, it is MY Aro people. The most mixed of any Igbo group yet we claim Igbo. Our own lect includes many Ibibio words.

And just because you cannot understand the Igbanke and Ukwuani dialect does not mean any other Igbo groups can't. I am pretty sure people from Anamabra would understand what is being said.

Aigbofa:

Hope is not completely lost if we continue to have people like you and Chiogo who are not afraid to tell the truth. Let the Ostriches continue to bury their heads in the sand.

You are talking about an Igbo who has never been to the East. He probably cannot speak Central Igbo since he is so clannish and only enjoys speaking and writing Ngwa.

Quick question. Do you know what Ukwuani mean? Any other Igbo should understand. . . Ukwuani is clearly an Igbo name just like Ikwerre.