“Your Ignorance Is A Disgrace To History And Human Intelligence”_

By Esther David

OPEN LETTER TO THE NIGERIAN PUBLIC

CHIEF AYIRIMI EMAMI: YOUR IGNORANCE IS A DISGRACE TO HISTORY AND HUMAN INTELLIGENCE

From: Concerned Movement For truth, justice and historical sanity of Warri Federal Constituency
Date: October 21, 2025

We write with blazing anger and utter disgust at the recent idiotic and self-glorifying statement credited to one Ayirimi Emami, the so-called disgraced formal Ologbotsere of “Warri Kingdom,” who shamelessly “faulted” the usage of Warri Kingdom by non-Itsekiri monarchs within Warri Federal Constituency. His outburst is not only historically illiterate but also a deliberate distortion of facts designed to sustain the colonial-born deceit that has kept the Itsekiri elite intoxicated with false superiority and inherited arrogance.

Let us begin by reminding this self-appointed historian that Warri is not a tribal property of the Itsekiri; it is a geographical and administrative space, one that existed centuries before any Itsekiri chief learned to pronounce “kingdom.” The name Warri itself has Ijaw roots, derived from Ware or Wari, which European traders in the 15th century used to describe the Ijaw settlements along the Forcados and Escravos rivers. Long before the arrival of the Portuguese in 1485, the Ijaws of Ogbe-Ijoh, Gbaramatu, and Egbema were the original inhabitants of these territories. This is confirmed in the records of Pacheco Pereira (1506) who explicitly documented the Ijaws as the coastal dwellers encountered by the first European voyagers, centuries before any “Olu” of Itsekiri was invented.

Ayiri’s ignorance of history is criminal. The so-called “Warri Kingdom” that he worships like a god of deceit was a 20th-century colonial fabrication, not an ancient empire. The British colonial officers, for administrative convenience, imposed the title “Olu of Warri” in 1952 in place of “Olu of Itsekiri.” The 1952 Western Region Gazette clearly shows that the name change was engineered by Itsekiri elites to give their minority tribe artificial importance over Ijaw and Urhobo neighbours. The Ijaws and Urhobos of Warri protested this deceit in petitions to the colonial Resident and later to the Willink Commission in 1957, exposing the fraudulent use of “Warri” as Itsekiri property. These are facts, not fantasies.

Legally, no court in Nigeria has ever declared that Warri belongs to the Itsekiri. In fact, the Supreme Court judgment in Timinimi v. INEC (2009) reaffirmed the existence of Ijaw territories within Warri Federal Constituency and ordered the delineation of wards according to the constitutional boundaries. The Court recognized that the Ijaw communities of Ogbe-Ijoh and Gbaramatu are distinct from Itsekiri areas, completely debunking Emami’s claim that Ijaw and Urhobo monarchs are “equating themselves with Itsekiri chiefs.” The only people trying to equate themselves with others are the Itsekiris who, through decades of manipulation, have tried to elevate their chieftaincy above constitutional and historical truth.

Psychologically, Emami’s utterances reveal a deep colonial inferiority complex. Itsekiri propaganda has always depended on the false idea that domination equals respect. That mentality was inherited from their colonial masters who used them as interpreters, warrant chiefs and agents of oppression. Now, generations later, that same inferiority is repackaged as “tradition.” How pathetic that in 2025, a man who claims to be a promoter of culture still doesn’t understand the limits of geography, the context of colonial administration and the difference between tribal identity and political boundaries.

Educationally, we challenge Ayiri to show us any authentic pre-colonial document that described an “Itsekiri Warri Kingdom.” None exists. What existed were small coastal Itsekiri settlements whose political and economic survival depended on Ijaw trade routes and protection. Even the so-called “Olu” had no territorial control beyond Ode-Itsekiri (Big Warri). The 1928 Intelligence Report by H. L. Vischer and the 1936 Administrative Map of Southern Nigeria both established that Warri Province was multi-ethnic, consisting of Ijaw, Urhobo and Itsekiri territories. These are colonial facts, not the beer-parlour fantasies of an unlettered man who mistakes titles for history.

We will no longer tolerate this serial distortion of truth. The Ijaws and Urhobos of Warri Federal Constituency have every moral, legal and historical right to identify with Warri Kingdom, for they are the true sons of the land upon which Itsekiri settlements were later founded. Even the Itsekiris’ first contact with European religion and trade came through Ijaw territories. So who, between the original landowners and the later guests, has the right to the name Warri?

Ayiri Emami’s attempt to monopolize the Warri identity is a tragic reflection of a lost soul trying to find relevance through lies. We urge him to educate himself before speaking on matters of history. The Ijaw monarchs, the Agadagbas of Gbaramatu and Ogbe-Ijoh, are not subjects of any Olu. They are custodians of their ancestral lands, older and more legitimate in historical standing than any colonial-fabricated title that the Itsekiri elite now parade as heritage.

Let it be known: Warri belongs to all her indigenous nations, Ijaw, Urhobo and Itsekiri, not to the Itsekiri alone. The age of deceit has ended. The truth has spoken and no amount of Ologbotsere noise can bury it again.

Signed,

Chief, Oweibiri Tony
(Chairman)

Dr, Seriwene Friday
(Secretary)

Concerned Movement For justice and historical sanity of Warri Federal Constituency

Cc:
The President, Federal Republic
of Nigeria

The National Assembly of Nigeria

The National Security Adviser (NSA)

The Attorney General of the Federation

The Delta State Government