The Myth Of Itsekiri Dominance: A Kingship Built On Courtroom Paper And Colonial Pardon__

By Uche Alvin

PRESS RELEASE

THE MYTH OF ITSEKIRI DOMINANCE: A KINGSHP BUILT ON COURTROOM PAPER AND COLONIAL PARDON

We, the true sons and daughters of the Ijaw Nation and other indigenous peoples of Warri, wish to categorically dismantle the long-standing falsehood and illusion of Itsekiri territorial superiority in Warri. Let it be made known, the foundation of Itsekiri kingship and land claims in Warri is not rooted in ancient conquest, cultural consent or organic evolution but on colonial manipulation, courtroom technicalities and historical fraud.

The so-called “Olu of Warri” is a title fabricated and propped up by British colonialists who, for their own mercantile convenience, enthroned Dore Numa and his descendants as agents, not as owners of land but as mere middlemen between the British government and indigenous landowners, especially the Ijaws and Urhobos of Warri. This colonial appointment was never a reflection of traditional authority or natural sovereignty over Warri territory.

Let the world remember. The Itsekiri kingship lacked a functional kingdom before the 20th century. Their so-called monarchy was dormant, disjointed and scattered. They had no centralized political control or economic dominance over the territories now falsely claimed under the broad and deceitful umbrella of “Warri.” The Itsekiri nation is essentially a coastal trading caste that survived on commerce not on ancestral ownership of land across Warri.

Today, they parade a kingship forged in courtrooms and falsely elevated through colonial pardon not the legitimate will of the people. Their claims to lands like Ogbe-Ijoh, Gbaramatu, Okerenkoko, Isaba, Egbema, and others, clearly Ijaw ancestral territories, are lies built on manipulated interpretations of history, sponsored survey maps and politically motivated government gazettes.

We must now ask, how can a people who represent a numerical minority in Warri arrogate to themselves the ownership of all lands? Is this not a textbook case of historical robbery aided by colonial conspiracy?

It is time to deconstruct this lie.

The Olu of Warri is not king over Ijaw and Urhobo people. Our allegiance is to our own kings and kingdoms. No Olu’s jurisdiction crosses into our sacred lands.
Warri is not an Itsekiri domain. Warri is a multi-ethnic political creation, not a tribal estate. Any attempt to reduce it to an Itsekiri fiefdom is an insult to its true history and peoples.
Colonial-era leases were signed with colonial agents like Dore Numa, not as landowners but as go-betweens. These leases cannot and must not be used as evidence of land ownership today. They were instruments of colonial theft and do not reflect ancestral or customary land rights.
Court rulings based on technicalities, language manipulation or state complicity do not override indigenous rights. Let it be clear, ancestral land cannot be lost by omission in court or by absence of white-paper backing. The land belongs to those whose blood is buried in it, not those who wrote letters to the Queen.

We are calling on:

The Federal Government of Nigeria

The National Assembly

The Nigerian Judiciary

The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

All justice-seeking Nigerians and international observers

To reject and reverse this sustained injustice against the Ijaw people and other oppressed indigenous communities in Warri. The time has come to demystify the Olu’s throne, a throne that rests not on ancestral truth but on colonial benevolence and legal gymnastics.

We will not be tenants in our own land. We will not submit to a kingship imposed by foreign pens and rubber-stamped by deceptive rulings.

Our land is not for sale. Our history is not for distortion. Our people are not for conquest.

Let this be a final warning to the Itsekiri political class, your hegemony is crumbling. The age of colonial deception is over. Truth is marching forward and it will break every chain you have used to suppress the rightful owners of Warri.

Signed:
Greatness Tamarapreye
President
Coalition of Indigenous Ijaw Youths and Stakeholders, Warri Territory