How Colonial Favoritism Created The Illusion Of Itsekiri Sovereignty Over Ijaw Lands____Ijaw Stakeholders Of Warri Federal Constituency -

By Esther David

OPEN LETTER TO THE NIGERIAN STATE AND THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY

THE INVENTED KINGDOM: HOW COLONIAL FAVORITISM CREATED THE ILLUSION OF ITSEKIRI SOVEREIGNTY OVER IJAW LANDS

Issued by: Ijaw Stakeholders of Warri Federal Constituency
Date: [13/7/2025]

There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal, not just to our ancestors but to truth itself. For far too long, the Ijaw people have watched a grand illusion take root: the illusion that the Itsekiris own Warri. That they are sovereigns. That they speak for a land they were once strangers to.

Let us now break that illusion, with history, with memory and with courage.

Warri did not begin with the Olu. It began with the Ijaw. Before the Portuguese dropped anchor in Forcados and Burutu, before the British drew borders to please traders, we were here, living, fishing, building and thriving.

When Prince Iginuwa was expelled from the Benin Kingdom, it was the Ijaw people who gave him refuge in Amatu. From there, he moved to Oruselemo, where the Ogulagha Ijaws sheltered him. When his temper cost a woman her life, he fled to Ijala, deep in Ijaw territory and died there.

His son, Ijijen, wandered into Okotomu, a peaceful Ijaw village founded by Fifan Wandobo of Keremo and was once again sheltered by our people. Okotomu is what the Itsekiris now call Ode-Itsekiri, the so-called seat of their crown.

This land was never Itsekiri land. It was never empty. It was never ceded. The Itsekiris are our guests. And yet today, they claim to rule us? What a funny world.

They forget their beginning.
But we remember. And we will not be silent.

There is no ancient Itsekiri kingdom. There was no Olu for nearly 90 years after the crown was abandoned in 1848. The British revived the title in 1936, not for culture, not for tradition but to create a puppet for trade control. That crown is not history, it is colonial invention.

The Itsekiri identity was sharpened in the rooms of British merchants, not in ancestral bloodlines. Dore Numa, their great merchant broker, worked hand-in-hand with the Royal Niger Company to erase Ijaw and Urhobo land claims, all to protect economic interests. And the Olu of Warri title, rebranded and repainted, became a false symbol of legitimacy over lands that were never theirs.

Even their language, “Itsekiri,” was elevated as a tool of hegemony. Warri, a multi-ethnic region with Ijaw, Urhobo, and others, was falsely painted as a “homogenous Itsekiri kingdom” in colonial maps, erasing the true custodians of the land.

They have no population.
They have no land.
They survive on borrowed maps, renamed villages and propaganda passed down as inheritance.

They scream louder because they are few.
They threaten because they are insecure.
They manipulate because the truth does not serve them.

Now, they run to the press.
They shout to the Oodua People’s Congress.
They accuse INEC of bribery.
They claim victimhood in a land they once begged to enter.

To the OPC, to the Nigerian public, to the world, open your eyes. You are not defending an oppressed people. You are defending a powerful lie. A lie built on colonial convenience and historical theft.

We, the Ijaw people of Warri Federal Constituency, reject this lie.

We reject a fake crown that cannot enter our towns without permission.
We reject strangers becoming landlords over the homes they were welcomed into.
We reject a system that erases our ancestors and calls it tradition.

Let it be clear: we will not condone this fraud, not today, not tomorrow, not ever.

We call on INEC, without fear or delay, to release the final ward delineation results.
We commend the Commission for its fairness, transparency and due process.
We urge the Federal Government, the National Security Adviser and the international community to stand firm against the blackmail and false narratives being spread by Itsekiri propagandists.

The land belongs to its true people, those who built it, not those who renamed it.
The crown belongs to no one who cannot trace its root to the soil.
And the truth belongs to the brave, not the loud.

We are the Ijaw people.
We harboured you.
We respected you.
But we will never allow you to rule us through deception.

The mask is off. The truth is alive.
History is on our side and history never forgets.

Signed:
Ijaw Stakeholders of Watch, Warri Federal Constituency

Chief Workson Preye
(Chairman)

Chief Bekeowei blessed (Secretary)
(On behalf of Ogbe-Ijoh, Gbaramatu, Diebiri, Egbema, Isaba and Allied Ijaw Territories)