“Abandon Your Fraudulent Land Claims And Embrace Reality” Warri Ijaws Tells Itsekiris, Highlights Several Lease Of Land Documents Of Ogbe-Ijoh And The Colonial Government -

By Uche Alvin

The Ijaws of Warri strongly urge the Itsekiri ethnic group to abandon their false, historically baseless and fraudulent claims to ownership of all lands in Warri. The era of using government machinery and political manipulation to dispossess the rightful landowners in Warri is over. For peace and justice to reign, both Ijaws and Itsekiris must embrace truth and coexist in equity. Warri is not synonymous with Itsekiri.

Historical records, particularly those preserved in Nigeria’s National Archives, bear clear and incontrovertible testimony to the Ijaw origin of Warri. A particularly revealing document is the Warri Township Assessment Report dated 12th June 1928, issued by the then Honourable Secretary of the Southern Provinces through the Resident, Warri Province, Mr. Pretheroe. According to this colonial intelligence report (File No. 20653, Chief Secretary’s Office, Federal Ministry of Education, National Archives), the town of Warri grew around the original Ijaw settlement known as Ogbe-Ijoh, which literally means “Ijaw fish market”.

“Ogbe Ijoh was originally an Ijaw settlement, the name is still retained to define that portion of the town around the present market.” 1928 Warri Township Assessment Report, Paragraph 2

Despite determined efforts by Itsekiri interests within successive state governments to erase this history, including a 2007 attempt to rename Ogbe-Ijoh Market as “Warri Central Market” the truth has prevailed. That market, like the Ijaw people, remains rooted and resilient.

Furthermore, the colonial authorities could not determine when Ogbe-Ijoh was founded, affirming it had existed for over a century by the 1920s. This supports the oral and ancestral accounts that Enwe (Ewein), an Ijaw man, founded Ogbe-Ijoh in time immemorial.

In a historic petition dated 29th August 1923, Chiefs of Ogbe-Ijoh, Chief Ikpa, Chief Jibede, Chief Ogbe, Chief Dosmor, Chief Tonwe, and Chief Okonobe, formally protested to the colonial Resident of Warri over attempts by the Itsekiri and their agent, Chief Dore Numa, to appropriate their ancestral lands, namely New Warri (Ogbe-Ijoh) and Alder’s Town. This petition, referenced by Professor Obaro Ikime in his seminal work Niger Delta Rivalry: Itsekiri-Urhobo Relations and the European Presence 1884–1936, remains a foundational document on the true development of Warri.

In a reply dated 10th November 1923, Chief Dore Numa, himself an Itsekiri leader and paramount chief of Warri Province, made astonishing admissions:

“The Ogbe-Ijoh natives are the rightful owners of New Warri or Ogbe-Ijoh and Alder’s Town. The Jekris followed the European traders to Warri in the 19th century. Myself, Chief Dore Numa, came from Bateren of Bini River, an Ijaw territory.”

He further clarified:

“I do not own any land in Warri through native right. I obtained land through alienation, government acquisition from the Ogbe-Ijoh natives.”

These are not Ijaw words. These are the confessions of an Itsekiri Chief and colonial collaborator who, despite benefitting from the British, still acknowledged the Ijaw roots of Warri. His honesty, rare as it was for that period, must not be ignored in today’s debates over land, identity and justice.

In fact, the colonial leases and deeds further substantiate Ijaw ownership:

File No. W.P/996 (13/02/1948) – Lease to the Muslim community over Ogbe-Ijoh land along Warri-Sapele Road (current site of Warri Central Mosque).
File No. 168/1926– Lease renewal by Mr. Willington J.O. for land at Ogbe-Ijoh issued to the late Mr. F.J. Philips.
Ref No. A.1234/23 (06/07/1926) – Application by J.O. Agbeyegbe, an Itsekiri man, for land between Ogbe-Ijoh and Alder’s Town.

All these are clear, written evidences that the colonial government dealt with Ogbe-Ijoh lands as Ijaw lands.

We, the Ijaws of Warri, call on the Itsekiri to return to the path of justice. The land disputes in Warri are not merely political, they are moral and historical. No one ethnic group can arrogate the entire landscape of Warri to itself.

Let it be known. Warri is a shared space. And truth not propaganda, will shape its future.

Let us live and let live. Let justice reign, so peace may endure.

Signed,
Darikoro
concerned indigenous Ijaw Stakeholders of warri Federal Constituency