The Myth Of Itsekiri Ownership Of Warri: A Colonial Invention Unraveled__

By Esther David

IJAW STAKEHOLDERS OF WARRI FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY

TRUTH-TELLING MEMORANDUM TO NIGERIANS, INEC AND THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY

Date: July 15, 2025
RE: HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL TRUTH-TELLING IN WARRI

THE MYTH OF ITSEKIRI OWNERSHIP OF WARRI: A COLONIAL INVENTION UNRAVELED

It is time to break the wickedness of centuries. Warri, the multi-ethnic region sitting on the ancestral lands of Ijaw and Urhobo peoples, has for too long suffered the historical deception and administrative violence birthed by colonial mischief and perpetuated by a small minority by the Itsekiris.

There was no “Itsekiri Kingdom of Warri” before colonialism. What existed were Ijaw and Urhobo communities thriving in their own governance systems. The arrival of Ginuwa, an exiled Bini prince around the late 15th century, marked the importation of a foreign monarchy, not the founding of Warri. Ginuwa landed at Ijala, an Ijaw town and was hosted, not conquered.

“The Itsekiri kingdom, as styled today, is a colonial construct rather than a legitimate precolonial dominion.”
— Prof. J.F. Ade-Ajayi, “Colonialism and the Falsehood of Ethnic Supremacy” (1972)

IJAW LAND, ITSEKIRI LIES: TRACING THE TRUE ANCESTRY OF WARRI TERRITORY

Ijaw settlements like Ogbe-Ijoh, Gbaramatu, Isaba, Okerenkoko, Egbema and Egbokodo predate the Olu’s presence in the region. The earliest British maps (e.g. 1846, Stanford’s Colonial Atlas) and intelligence reports clearly mark these areas as Ijaw and Urhobo territories.

Colonial Officer M.C. Smart in 1933 wrote:
“There is no historical evidence that the Olu or his agents exercised political control over Gbaramatu or the Forcados River areas.”
(Intelligence Report on Gbaramatu Clan, NAI CSO 26/2 27036)

So where lies the ownership claim of the Itsekiris? Only in colonial favoritism, where British officials, preferring a monarch they could manipulate, conferred undue recognition on the Olu of Warri to serve indirect rule.

HOW THE BRITISH EMPOWERED THE MINORITY: THE OLU OF WARRI AND THE WARPED COLONIAL LEGACY

The British, in a 1936 Ordinance, officially recognized the Olu of Warri but not as a territorial overlord. That colonial “recognition” was purely administrative, to facilitate taxation and communication, not to confer ownership over land.

Supreme Court Judgment (Suit No. W/148/1962):
“The Olu of Warri holds no title over Gbaramatu lands; the Ijaw people are in continuous, uninterrupted occupation.”

Moreover, the 1958 Report of the Willink Commission acknowledged the marginalization of the Ijaw people, cautioning that administrative classifications should not become tools of dispossession.

THE REAL HISTORY OF WARRI: BEFORE GINUWA, BEFORE THE OLU

The region now called Warri was once referred to as “Nana’s Domain,” recognizing Chief Nana Olomu, an Itsekiri merchant, but not a king. Before him and Ginuwa, the lands were populated by indigenous clans, Ijaws in the south and Urhobos in the north.

British Intelligence Report, 1908:
“The Ijaws of the Forcados and Escravos regions are independent fishing and trading communities. They do not owe allegiance to the Olu.”

It was only in the 1950s that the title “Olu of Warri” was fraudulently extended to imply ownership of the whole of Warri Division, despite strong opposition by the Urhobo and Ijaw leaders of the time, which is not still recognize by the Ijaws and the Urhobos.

IJAW RESISTANCE AND THE FIGHT AGAINST ITSEKIRI TERRITORIAL HIJACK

From the Ijaw Youth Council’s Kaiama Declaration (1998) to recent court victories, the Ijaw people have consistently resisted Itsekiri territorial encroachment. We have buried our martyrs in the struggle for land, identity, and justice, from the Warri crises of 1997-2003 to the legal battles of the 2010s.

Appeal Court Judgment CA/B/78/2010:
“Ogbe-Ijoh is an Ijaw community with no historical, traditional, or legal subservience to the Olu of Warri.”

REBUTTALS & EXPOSÉS

FAKE CROWN, FAKE LAND: THE MANUFACTURED KINGDOM OF THE ITSEKIRIS

The current Itsekiri crown is not a natural evolution of indigenous kingship. It is a foreign fabrication, built on Portuguese missionary myths, embellished with colonial endorsements. The 1952 renaming of the “Olu of Itsekiri” to “Olu of Warri” was an act of cultural piracy and geopolitical fraud, intended to lay false claim to the entire Warri Province.

WHY THE ITSEKIRIS FEAR DELINEATION: THE DEATH OF A LIE

INEC’s ward delineation exercise threatens to expose the demographic fraud the Itsekiris have benefited from for decades. With less than 5% of the population in Warri Federal Constituency, the Itsekiris are desperate to retain artificial electoral advantages through media blackmail and institutional intimidation.

WHO IS BANKROLLING ITSEKIRI SUPREMACY? OIL POLITICS, LOBBY NETWORKS & FOREIGN HANDS

We ask: who is bankrolling the relentless Itsekiri lawsuits? Which foreign oil interests, still bitter over community agitation, are silently propping up the Itsekiri elite to suppress the landowners? These questions demand urgent national and international investigation.

THE LANDLORDS OF PROPAGANDA: HOW THE ITSEKIRIS HOLD WARRI DEMOCRACY HOSTAGE

From hijacking LG headquarters to planting misleading narratives in global media, the Itsekiri propaganda machinery is a well-oiled weapon of dominance. Their goal? To silence the majority and keep the world blind to the truth of Ijaw and Urhobo sovereignty.

Late Chief Harold Dappa-Biriye once said:
“The greatest injustice in the Niger Delta is not oil theft. It is land theft.”

UNMASKING THE ITSEKIRI HISTORICAL FRONT: LIES, LAWSUITS, AND LOST LEGITIMACY

The so-called Itsekiri Historical Front is not a body of historians. It is a political gang masquerading as scholars, whose every publication is a cocktail of distorted colonial documents, half-truths, and outright fabrications intended to intimidate INEC, foreign embassies and the Nigerian public.

CALL TO ACTION

We hereby call on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Federal Government of Nigeria to:

Complete the ward delineation exercise in Warri Federal Constituency based on population and true indigenous ownership;
Revert the title “Olu of Warri” to “Olu of Itsekiri”, as it was before 1952;
Recognize Ijaw and Urhobo ancestral ownership of Warri lands, in line with court decisions, census records and colonial maps;
Stop rewarding falsehood with political advantage.

Signed:

Chief Tiemopere Joshua (President)

Chief Ebikeke T. Goodstime
(Secretary)

Ijaw Stakeholders of Warri Federal Constituency

Cc:

Presidency, Federal Republic of Nigeria

National Assembly (Senate & House of Representatives)

INEC Chairman, Abuja

British High Commission

United Nations Indigenous Peoples Desk

Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)

Amnesty International, Nigeria Desk