JUST IN: Concerned Indigenous Stakeholders Of Warri Federal Constituency Makes Rebuttal To Publication Made By Itsekiri Youth Elite (IYE), Moves To Set Records Straight

By Uche Alvin

REBUTTAL PRESS STATEMENT

RE: THE MISLEADING CLAIMS OF THE ITSEKIRI YOUTH ELITE (IYE) — A WEB OF MANIPULATED JUDGEMENTS, INVENTED HISTORY, AND ETHNIC GASLIGHTING

The recent press statement issued by the so-called Itsekiri Youth Elite (IYE) is not only riddled with historical distortions and deliberate misrepresentation of facts but also exposes the desperate attempt of a people battling to rewrite reality through old colonial alliances, expired court verdicts and an obsessive obsession with outdated titles like “overlordship.”

The Itsekiri continue to lay claim to ownership of Warri, yet their monarch and palace resides on Okumagba land as a tenant, a contradiction that exposes the hollowness of their claims. This is the same pattern of deceit they employed when they misled Rufai Oseni on national television with a fictitious Supreme Court judgment (SC.309: Omagbemi v. Diare), a case that does not exist and nearly damaged his professional credibility. In similar fashion, they misinformed senior legal luminaries such as Wole Olanipekun, SAN; Akin Olujimi, SAN, and Dado Danian, SAN. When INEC responded by clarifying that the disputed Warri ward delineation was based on an existing Supreme Court judgment, they quietly filed a notice of discontinuance, exposing the deliberate concealment at the heart of their campaign.

We categorically reject every attempt by the IYE to belittle, erase or subjugate the Ijaw people of Ogbe-Ijoh, Gbaramatu, Isaba, Diebiri and the greater Warri axis.

Let it be known. Itsekiris were accommodated by Ijaws. They came as visitors and that truth cannot be court-ordered away.

1. WHO ARE THE TRUE SETTLERS?

Obscure questions beg clarity:

If the Itsekiris truly own the lands from Gbaramatu to Ogbe-Ijoh to the NPA port, why did Chief Dore Numa (an Itsekiri) sign those leases as a representative of the colonial government, not as a landowner?

If Itsekiri owns Warri, why have they continued paying royalties and tributes to Urhobo landowners in Agbassa and Okere, even till date?

If the Ijaw are tenants, how do you explain the uninterrupted socio-cultural existence of Ijaw settlements centuries before the Olu stool was relocated to Warri in the 15th century?

Why is it that every judgment cited by IYE dates back to colonial or early post-colonial courts whose frameworks were rigged through tribal alliances that openly suppressed indigenous peoples?

2. THE TRUTH ABOUT COURT JUDGMENTS

The Itsekiris constantly cherry-pick judgments won on technical grounds, often by misrepresentation of facts or jurisdictional loopholes, many of which were made during colonial rule when Ijaw people had no legal representation or literacy to defend their land.

These are the same court systems that tried to declare Ijaw ancestral communities like Oporoza as “tenants” on their own land, despite archaeological and anthropological evidence showing uninterrupted Ijaw settlement and ownership centuries before British contact.

If you believe in court verdicts so much, why then do you oppose the 2022 Supreme Court directive to INEC on Warri delineation, where the Ijaws followed due process and won?

3. OLU OF WARRI: AN OVERLORD OR A SYMBOL OF DELUSION?

This tired “overlord” narrative is a relic of a time when coercion replaced consent and colonialism imposed monarchy on free people. The Olu has never been the overlord of Gbaramatu, Ogbe-Ijoh, or Diebiri.

Where is the cultural, linguistic or ancestral connection between the Olu and these Ijaw communities? There is none.
So how then does a visitor become a landlord over the host?

4. HISTORICAL MANIPULATION DOES NOT ERASE INDIGENEITY

Documents such as the Southern Nigeria Civil Service Handbook (1904), the Warri Urban District Council records (1955), and various British archival maps and leases confirm that Ogbe-Ijoh, Gbaramatu and adjacent areas belong to the Ijaw.

Even Chief Dore Numa, your celebrated icon, admitted that he only acted on behalf of the colonial Resident Commissioner, not as a landowner.

5. THE REALITY OF TODAY

What you call “Ijaw settlers” are a people who have:

Survived multiple coordinated attacks from Itsekiri warlords in the 1997–2003 crisis.

Hosted oil exploration that funds the very state you claim to dominate.

Won democratic and court victories but are constantly oppressed with propaganda, political lobbying and violence.

OUR DEMANDS AND WARNING

We call on the Federal Government, INEC and international observers to:

Ignore the Itsekiri propaganda machine and release the final report on Warri ward delineation without compromise.

Recognize that the Ijaw people have never been tenants but owners and hosts.

Investigate the systemic efforts to use the office of the NSA and judiciary to block justice for indigenous people.

Let it be known:

Truth is not measured by propaganda.

Land is not owned by manipulation.

And a stolen crown does not make you a king.

Signed:
Comr. Miebi Thomp
President, Concerned Indigenous Ijaw Stakeholders of Warri Federal Constituency

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