“REBUTTAL TO ITSEKIRI HISTORICAL FRONT: A Narrative Built On Lies, Litigation Fraud, Colonial Ghost”___

By Uche Alvin

REBUTTAL TO THE ITSEKIRI HISTORICAL FRONT (IHF): A NARRATIVE BUILT ON LIES, LITIGATION FRAUD, AND COLONIAL GHOSTS

Coalition of Indigenous Stakeholders of Warri Federal Constituency (Ijaw, Urhobo, and True Owners of Warri)

We have read, with a mixture of disbelief and fury, the desperate propaganda piece released by the Itsekiri Historical Front (IHF) on June 27, 2025. Titled “Affirming Historical and Legal Facts on Itsekiri Ownership”, it is a tragic insult to the intelligence of all well-meaning Nigerians. But worse still, it is a calculated act of historical distortion, ethnic provocation and colonial revivalism that seeks to enslave free peoples through lies backed by fraudulent litigation and long-dead colonial trickery.

We will not sit silent while a group of historical impersonators attempt to overwrite the collective memory and ancestral dignity of the Ijaw and Urhobo peoples.

Let us be unequivocal: the claims by the Itsekiri Historical Front (IHF), riddled with venomous insults and colonial arrogance, are not only laughable but stand in direct contradiction to verifiable historical documents, judicial pronouncements, and indigenous memory. The IHF may rely on repetition and verbosity to intimidate the gullible but Ijaws will continue to confront falsehood with truth, not fiction.

Misrepresentation of Chief Dore Numa: Setting the Record Straight

The Itsekiri Historical Front’s deceitful distortion of Chief Dore Numa’s role is laughable and pathetic. Dore Numa was never a landowner but a Warrant Chief appointed by the British colonial administration as an agent of the government not as a representative of the Olu or the so-called “Itsekiri nation.” This fact was made crystal clear in Ometan v. Dore Numa (1926) and confirmed by Justice Graham Paul who stated unambiguously that Dore Numa was acting under colonial authority not under the Olu of Warri.

Furthermore, the Judgment in Suit No. 27/1926 delivered by Justice Osborne states clearly that “there is no proof that Dore Numa was overlord of the lands in question.” That case was between the Agbassa Urhobos and Dore Numa and the court ruled in favor of the Agbassa people, effectively debunking Itsekiri propaganda. So the delusion that Chief Ogbe and Dore Numa leased Ogbe-Ijoh land as Itsekiri representatives is not only dishonest, it is legal heresy.

LEGAL PRECEDENTS IN FAVOUR OF THE IJAW PEOPLE

The IHF failed to mention the many significant judicial victories the Ijaws have secured against the Itsekiris and other hostile forces:

The Pere of Gbaramatu v. Chief E. E. Sillo & Others (Suit W/37/61): Though the Itsekiris often twist the narrative, this case was settled with an agreement that respected Gbaramatu autonomy and tenure, contrary to the IHF’s narrative of submission.

Chief Isuokumo Oloiki & Others v. Itsekiri Communal Land Trustees (1956): Although the suit was withdrawn for strategic reasons, the very existence of this case proves the Ijaws never accepted tenant status and were actively contesting ownership.

In numerous judicial reviews, the courts have affirmed that settlement, occupation and continuous use give rise to customary ownership, a legal doctrine supported by the Supreme Court in Amodu Tijani v. Secretary, Southern Nigeria (1921), which recognizes indigenous land rights irrespective of colonial distortions.

THE IJAW PEOPLE: ABORIGINAL OCCUPANTS, NOT MIGRANTS

The idea that the Ijaws of Ogbe-Ijoh or Gbaramatu are “migrants” is a perversion of both history and anthropology. The Ijaw nation is the oldest ethnic group in the central Niger Delta, predating the arrival of even the Bini Kingdom in these territories.

According to Professor Ebiegberi Joe Alagoa, a foremost Niger Delta historian, the Ijaws had settled in Gbaramatu, Egbema, Ogulagha and Ogbe-Ijoh before the 15th century. These settlements were not products of Itsekiri permission but of ancestral and spiritual migration patterns, guided by Ijaw cosmology and kinship traditions.

Even colonial maps and surveys like the British Intelligence Reports (1929–1932) identify Ogbe-Ijoh, Isaba and Diebiri as Ijaw communities, not Itsekiri lands.

The 1951 Intelligence Report on Gbaramatu Clan acknowledges that the Ijaw people occupied the Gbaramatu axis from ancient times, paying no tribute or rent to any Olu.

THE OLU OF WARRI DOES NOT EXERCISE SOVEREIGNTY OVER IJAW LANDS

The Olu may sit on a symbolic stool but that stool has no jurisdiction over Ijaw territories. The Nigerian Constitution does not recognize overlordship between ethnic nationalities. Customary law is territorial, not hierarchical. The Ijaws of Ogbe-Ijoh, Gbaramatu, Isaba, Diebiri and Egbema have their own traditional councils, kings and sacred groves, with no cultural or legal subordination to the Olu.

THE OGBE-IJOH WATERFRONT IS IJAW TERRITORY: NAMED AND OWNED BY THE PEOPLE

It is both linguistically and historically inaccurate to claim that the name “Ogbe-Ijoh” was derived from “Ogbe” of Ode-Itsekiri. The Ijaw word “Ogbe” means “settlement” or “hamlet”, while “Ijoh” is the ethnic marker. The community Ogbe-Ijoh predates colonial Warri township, and oral traditions consistently point to ancestral migration from Operemor and Apoi in the Ijaw heartland, not Itsekiri territory.

The 1906 lease of the Ogbe-Ijoh waterfront was fraudulently executed by Itsekiri agents but the Ijaws never surrendered ownership. They were evicted by colonial decree, not judicial ruling. A petition was filed in 1933 by Ogbe-Ijoh elders, protesting the illegal alienation of their land to colonial authorities.

INEC’S FRAUDULENT WARD DELINEATION: IJAW OPPOSITION IS VALID

The Ijaws and Urhobos were right to challenge INEC’s manipulative delineation of wards in Warri South-West. By awarding disproportionate political control to a numerically insignificant Itsekiri population, INEC created an apartheid system. The 1996 Ogidigben Local Government crisis erupted because the Itsekiris, aided by military dictatorship, tried to rob the Ijaws of Ogbe-Ijoh of political existence.

It is not the Ijaws but the Itsekiris who have consistently used armed militias, fake leases and colonial-era fraud to assert imaginary control.

Ijaw Indigeneity and Warri’s True Origins

Contrary to the Itsekiris’ perverse and plagiarized historiography, the Ijaws of Gbaramatu and Ogbe-Ijoh are aboriginal settlers of the Warri creeks. This is affirmed in Eyin Pessu & Others v. Brigbe (W/116/56) where the Ijaw defendants were never declared tenants but rather granted possessory rights. Also, in Chief Isuokumo Oloiki v. Itsekiri Communal Land Trustees (W/148/56), the Ijaws withdrew without any admission of tenancy, and the Supreme Court never affirmed them as tenants. These are facts deliberately omitted by the IHF to confuse their audience.

Moreover, in the Midwestern Nigeria Government White Paper of 1972, following the Panel of Enquiry into Communal Ownership of Land in Warri, it was noted that “certain Ijaw clans such as Gbaramatu and Ogbe-Ijoh are settled on ancestral lands and are not tenants to the Olu of Warri.” This official government document flatly contradicts the IHF’s deceptive propaganda.

Colonial Judgments Were Not Gospel Truth

The IHF boasts about colonial court rulings, as if those biased courts handed down divine law. We must remind them that colonial legal decisions were politically skewed in favor of collaborators like Dore Numa. Justice Nnamani in SC/450/65 clearly noted in his dissenting opinion that native title could not be presumed merely from tenure arrangements enforced under indirect rule. The Ijaw rejection of these judgments is not delusional, it is historically justified and rooted in the same nationalist consciousness that inspired Nigerians to reject colonialism as a whole.

The Ogbe-Ijoh Waterfront Was Never Itsekiri Land

The 1906 lease of the Ogbe-Ijoh waterfront is often weaponized by the Itsekiris but the truth is that the Ijaw traders were already resident on that land. The IHF fails to mention that no court ever declared the land to be Itsekiri land in a conclusive, radical title sense. In fact, in 1933, the Ijaw community petitioned the Colonial Governor directly, stating that the land was illegally seized by Dore Numa under colonial collusion. This was never resolved in court a deliberate avoidance by colonial authorities to preserve the status quo for their Itsekiri proxies.

The Olu Does Not Own Warri

Let us demolish the lie once and for all: The Olu of Itshekiri is not the overlord of Warri. In Idudun v. Okumagba (SC/309/74), the Supreme Court affirmed that radical title to land in Okumagba area did not belong to the Olu, the claim was for possessory right, not radical ownership. Even the court clearly stated the Itsekiris had no proven ancestral title over most of modern Warri township. That’s why Okere, Ubeji and Igbudu quarters have continually rejected any Itsekiri overlordship.

Ijaw Legal Victories That IHF Hides

Let us expose the deliberate suppression of facts by the Itsekiri Historical Front. Below are judgments where Ijaws either won outright or were never declared tenants:

-Chief Isuokumo Oloiki & Ors. v. Itsekiri Communal Land Trustees (W/148/56). The case was discontinued by the Ijaws, not lost. There was no judgment declaring them tenants. The Supreme Court merely struck out their appeal not affirming any Itsekiri right.

Eyin Pessu & Others v. Brigbe & Others (W/116/56). While Itsekiris were granted possessory rights, Ijaw communities remained in occupation and no declaration of tenancy was made against them.

Ginuwa v. Pere of Gbaramatu (unreported, 1953).In this local case, the Pere’s claim to traditional authority in Gbaramatu was never invalidated, nor was Itsekiri sovereignty imposed.

The So-called Tenant Narrative Is a Colonial Myth

The narrative of the Ijaws being tenants is nothing more than a colonial fiction invented to prop up collaborators like the Olu and Dore Numa. What does it say that the very same colonial system which enslaved Nigerians is now being invoked to define our ancestry and land rights? It only reveals the IHF’s total lack of intellectual independence and blind loyalty to colonial ideology.

Violence? Let’s Talk History

It was not the Ijaws who burned Ode-Itsekiri in 1894, it was the British Navy. The so-called Warri crisis of 1997–2003 was ignited by the military government’s unjust decision to place the headquarters of a new LGA in Itsekiri land, without consulting the Ijaws and Urhobos who made up the majority population. The IHF’s pretentious victimhood ignores the violence visited upon Gbaramatu and Ogbe-Ijoh by state-backed forces during those years.

Population Data Favors the Ijaws

The 1963 census was rigged in favor of the Itsekiris. In contrast, the 1991 and 2006 censuses show that Ijaws now outnumber the Itsekiris in Warri South West and Warri North LGAs, yet Itsekiris continue to monopolize political appointments, land rights and LGA headquarters, often violently and undemocratically. Is this the “peaceful integrity” they speak of?

We, the Concerned Indigenous Stakeholders of Warri Federal Constituency, are using this medium to call out the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the strongest terms possible.

It is totally unacceptable, reprehensible and provocative that INEC has refused to publish the final delineation results of Warri Federal Constituency long after field work, verification, public hearings and submissions were completed. This deliberate silence is not only suspicious, it is dangerous. It emboldens those who want to erase the political existence of the Ijaw and Urhobo people in Warri and gives room to the fraud and deception being peddled by tribal supremacists hiding under history to steal land and political identity.

We are therefore calling on:

The National Security Adviser (NSA)

The National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

The Office of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice

All patriotic Nigerians

The civil society and pro-democracy organizations

The international community and human rights observers

To stand up against this modern-day political apartheid being imposed on the true natives of Warri.

The attempt to suppress Ijaw and Urhobo representation in Warri through INEC’s cowardly silence is a ticking time bomb. This injustice must not stand. The Ijaws of Gbaramatu and Ogbe-Ijoh and the Urhobos of Agbassa and Okere are not strangers or squatters, we are the blood and backbone of Warri. Our communities are populated, vibrant and historically rooted, yet we are being treated as if we do not exist in the eyes of INEC.

This is not just an insult, it is an existential provocation.

WE DEMAND THE FOLLOWING IMMEDIATELY:

That INEC must immediately release the final ward delineation results and publish the official maps and documents showing all polling units, wards and electoral demarcations across Warri South, Warri South West and Warri North LGAs.
That INEC must ensure that the delineation reflects the realities on ground, including the ancestral and populated territories of Ogbe-Ijoh, Gbaramatu, Agbassa, Orugbo, Opuede, Kokodiagbene, Oporoza, Benikrukru, and others.
That the National Assembly should summon the INEC Chairman and compel full disclosure of the status of Warri delineation under oath.
That the National Security Adviser and relevant agencies should act to prevent any violent suppression of native communities’ voices through fraudulent electoral structures.
That the international community especially the United Nations, ECOWAS, and embassies international, should take note of this creeping ethnic gerrymandering and intervene diplomatically to uphold justice and fairness.

This is not a time for silence.
This is not a time for political correctness.
This is a time for truth, courage and action.

Warri is not a monarchy. It is not a conquered land. It is a Federal Constituency within a democratic republic. It belongs to its people, not to a single tribe or throne. The Ijaws and Urhobos will not be erased. We will resist peacefully, legally and constitutionally. But we will resist.

IN CONCLUSION: IHF’s Rebuttal is a Monument of Fraud

The press release signed by Comr. Lily-White Esigbone and his co-authors is not a rebuttal, it is a recycled garbage dump of lies, distortion and arrogant colonialism disguised as tradition. Their refusal to engage with post-independence constitutional realities, their fear of demographic truth and their hatred for the Ijaw people is exposed in every paragraph.

Your kingdom is not 548 years old, your history is a colonial invention, constructed by the British to divide the people of Warri and your fictional overlordship has been rejected by the living communities of today.

You cannot rewrite Ijaw ancestral rights with your pompous English and fraudulent leases. You cannot falsify history with court cases that either have no bearing on Ijaw lands or have been contradicted by post-independence legal and constitutional principles. You cannot keep using colonial titles to cover up your shrinking political relevance.

The Ijaw people are not tenants, not strangers and certainly not fools. If your goal is to provoke, you may succeed in stoking tension. But in the end, truth will rise and ancestral lands will never be surrendered to colonial puppets or self-proclaimed overlords.

We reject their press release with the fury of truth, with the fire of justice and with the legacy of our ancestors who have fished, farmed and died on these lands long before any Olu dreamt of a crown.

We reject your insults, your fraud, your fake leases and your hallucinated “1,000-year ownership”. Warri is not your private empire. It is a multi-ethnic space

Warri belongs to all its indigenous people Urhobo, Ijaw and Itsekiri. Not to a single throne. Not to a fading dynasty. And certainly not to the Itsekiri Historical Front.

The days of deception are over. The people will write their own history and this time, we write it in blood, sweat and legal victory.

Enough is enough.

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