WARRI—THE Ijaw People Development Initiative, IPDI, and Niger Delta Scholars, NDS, Warri, Delta State, have expressed concern over the recent claim by the Alpha-May Club, an Itsekiri organization, that the Itsekiri ethnic nationality owns New Warri, also known as Ogbe-Ijoh.

National Coordinator of NDS, Chief Monday Keme, said, yesterday: “We are not surprised at this claim because it is the internal desire of Itsekiri to wipe away Ogbe-Ijoh from Warri leading to the famous Warri crises.

“We do not want to be reminded of our unpleasant past. The
three ethnic groups, Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo, all know their boundaries in Warri South Local Government Area. We, therefore, call on men of conscience to rise and condemn comments capable of causing ethnic crisis in Warri and its environs.

“For the records, ‘New Warri or Ogbe-Ijoh’ comprises two leases: B2 Volume one, dated 30/7/1906 (360 acres) and lease B5 Volume one, dated 15/7/1908 (180 acres) making a total of 540 acres and not 350 acres as claimed by the Itsekiri.

“It must be added here for the course of subsequent history, that New Warri, known as Ogbe-Ijoh, belongs to the Ogbe-Ijoh people and the past and present leaders of Ogbe-Ijoh have exercised considerable rights over these parcels of land. The Warri Assessment report, 1927, Nigerian Civil Service List and Handbook of 1910 (page 27), land leased all confirmed Ogbe-Ijoh ownership of new Warri or Ogbe-Ijoh, including Chief Dore Numa’s letter to Ogbe-Ijoh people dated 1923,” the group said.

Similarly, the Ijaw People Development Initiative, IPDI, in a statement by its National President, Austin Ozobo, said: “It is pertinent to note that the Itsekeri were visitors to Ijawland. This is a fact you cannot put under the carpet.

“They were nursed and were given Adirimo, an Ijaw woman, from Ogulagha to raise the purported Itsekiri Kingdom. It will interest the public to note that Itsekiri did not own any area in Ogbe-Ijoh, Forcados and Escravos. The aforesaid places are ancient Ijaw settlements. No Itsekiri settlement is found in Forcados, Ogbe-Ijoh and Escravos in Delta State.

“The era of parading with pirated or falsified document is over. How can a man who visited Ijaw at Amatu and Orueselemo and squatted for several decades turn to own such lands?.
”http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/05/groups-slam-itsekiri-claim-new-warri/
Cc lalasticlala

Ijaw are despepate land grabbers.

Why did Ijaws lost at the Supreme court?

i foresee crisis coming.

years ago."
In Ometan on behalf of himself and the Agbassa people versus Chief Dore Numa in Suit #25/1926, the plaintiffs in their statement of claim deposed as follows (2) :
"It is claimed that as far back as over a hundred years ago the plaintiff's ancestors settled on the land in dispute…"
In The Sobo of the Niger Delta , 1948, John Hubbard states on page 7:
"A migration occurred probably late in the 18 th century from a Sobo town called Agbarha about twenty three miles East of Warri in the middle of Sobo country… (they) crossed the Warri River and by negotiation with the Jekri obtained land from them… built a village of their own which they named after their hometown Agbarha (Agbassa). This is now one of the quarters in Warri."
In the famous case mentioned above, it was decided that:
"… when the Agbassa came to Warri they were given permission by the Olu to settle on land which is now known as Bomali or Abgassa village…. That from the earliest times and during recent years the Agbassa rendered service to the defendant as overlord…."
On appeal, the Full Court of the Supreme Court (now the Supreme Court) of Nigeria, consisting of Kingdom, C., J., Berkeley and Butler Lloyd, JJ, in Lagos on March 13, 1931, confirmed the foregoing decision (3) :
"In this appeal, the appellants belong to the Sobo tribe known as Agbassa. They are claiming the overlordship of the greater part of Warri as against the defendant who represents the Jekri tribe. The defendant in his representative capacity is at present the officially recognized owner of the land in dispute and Government has leased a considerable area of land in Warri from him in that capacity.
"The plaintiffs, (i.e. appellants) do not seek in any way to disturb the existing leases, but they claim as of right to be substituted for the defendant in the overlordship of the territory in dispute.
".. the Agbassa were given permission by the Olu … to settle on land in Warri. That they have since increased in numbers, wealth and importance until now they feel themselves strong enough to impugn the title of the overlord….
"In my opinion they have failed to establish their claims. I consider that this appeal should be dismissed."
Dissatisfied, the Agbassa appealed to the Privy Council in London. The appeal was listed as #65 of 1932. Lord Atkin delivered judgement of the Lords of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council - present were Lord Atkin, Lord Aliness and Sir Sidney Rowlatt. The judgement delivered in 1933 was as follows (4) :
"This is an appeal from the Full Court of the Supreme Court of Nigeria who dismissed the present appellant's appeal from the judgement of Mr. Justice Webber in an action in which the appellant was plaintiff and the respondents were defendants. It was an action brought by the plaintiffs on behalf of a tribe or sub-tribe in that district of the Agbassa people claiming territorial rights over land known as the Agbassa land in the Warri district to the Southern Province of Nigeria. The dispute was between the plaintiff representing the Agbassa people and the defendants representing another tribe or sub-tribe of the Jekri people claiming to be overlords of this territory.
"In the circumstances, there being concurrent findings of fact and there being in addition ample evidence to support them, it is quite impossible for their Lordships to interfere with the decisions which have been arrived at by both courts and their Lordships will therefore humbly advise His Majesty that this appeal should be dismissed. The respondents must have the cost of the appeal."
Following repeated litigation and non-compliance with the law, the Supreme Court, presided over by Udo-Udoma, Sowemimo and Ibekwe, S.C.J.J., in suits #SC 67/1971 and #SC 327/1972, reviewed previous judgements and rendered as follows (5) :
"In view of these unimpeachable recurring findings by Courts of competent jurisdiction, there can be no question that the Agbassa, including the Igbudu are customary tenants of the first claimants (that is, the Itsekiri Land Trustees). Their tenure of the land occupied by them is therefore subject to the incident of customary tenancy. It is fool-hardy on the part of the part of the second claimants…. in the face of overwhelming evidence and findings of successive courts throughout the years to seek from time to time as soon as there is notice of acquisition and the prospects of a windfall like manna from heaven to re-litigate issues which have been clearly determined and laid to rest against them by persisting in the groundless assertion that the people of Agbassa are the absolute owners of the land in dispute which has been conclusively established as forming the land and subject matter of suit #25 of 1926."
In a further judgement (6) , the Supreme Court in suit #SC 328/1972, stated:
"We have already observed that the first claimants (Itsekiri Land Trust) are not mere revisioners. They are in fact and in law the legal owners of the land in the occupation of the Agbassa Community, who occupy the same subject to the usual incidents of customary tenancy, such as being of good behavior and not attempting to alienate any interest therein to strangers without the knowledge and authority of their overlord. Any infraction of such incidents would immediately expose the offender to the full rigors of forfeiture which may be granted in a proper case. Instances are not wanting in the law reports of forfeiture having been decreed in certain circumstances…. We are satisfied that the approach of the learned trial judge to the issue under consideration was correct and that his decision is unimpeachable. It is right."
Several similar judgements against Ijaws abound (7) .
Finally, we report this Supreme Court judgement delivered by Nnameka Agu, J.S.C., in 1993 ( :
"No doubt a tribunal of inquiry is an inferior tribunal to both the High Court and the Supreme Court which are in the Constitution vested with unlimited powers to adjudicate on right of parties who appear before them and see to the execution and enforcement of their decisions. Once a party gets a final judgement in his favor before a Court of competent jurisdiction, such a judgement is effective, conclusive and binding on the parties and their privies and can only be upset on appeal. A tribunal of Inquiry is not a court of appeal, competent to review, set aside, or override such judgement…"
Okere Co

Afonja and treacherous attitude. Just negodu what their fellow sky descendants ishekiri are doing

jkfugghhghjdd:
Afonja and treacherous attitude. Just negodu what their fellow sky descendants ishekiri are doing

Shut up your mouth.
You lost at the High Court
You lost at the Appeal Court
You lost at the Supreme court
You lost at the West African court of appeal
You lost at the Privy council in London

At the Appropriate time, you Ijaws will beg for consideration.

E no concern me even as I be Itsekiri

OAUTemitayo:
At the Appropriate time, you Ijaws will beg for consideration.

just shut up, make sure u go n fight for the Itsekiri n don't drag Yoruba Nation to it.

DamiBukola:
just shut up, make sure u go n fight the Itsekiri n don't drag Yoruba Nation to it.

Ignoramus who is fighting Itsekiris?
Can't you just grow a brain?

OAUTemitayo:
Ignoramus who is fighting Itsekiris?
Can't you just grow a brain?

I meant to say, fight for the Itsekiri

DamiBukola:
I meant to say, fight for the Itsekiri

Itsekiris are my brothers and I will fight for them.

Ijaw people should stand against any form of threats around them

Those itshekiris are not to b trusted

Who are d itsekiris

Because the court knows their history as a people that came to Nigeria alongside the Europeans. And their once hosts have now found themselves defending their ancestral land. It's coming to a point that giving a stranger a cup of water would be thought of as something that could cost a community part of their land since people now claim towns they had no roots in after a few decades of being accepted into the communities by kind hearted hosts.

OAUTemitayo:
Why did Ijaws lost at the Supreme court?

"we south south" crew, over to you

Itsekiris should stop fanning the embers of discord. What is there in living peacefully with your ethnic neighbours? Must you claim that the whole Delta belong to you before you can have peace of mind?

Every ethnic group in the Lower Niger migrated there at some point. We aren't aborigines of the lands we currently occupy and so I wonder how the Itsekiris think they actually own the land when it is proven historically that they are the most recent settlers in the region. Because of their romance with the colonial masters, they were able to oppress the Ijaws and Urhobos in Warri, change the title of their monarch to reflect the entire Warri as if they solely own it and marginalise other ethnicities in Warri. The crises of 1999-2003 have not taught them any lesson.

Itsekiris should leave land issue and start focusing on their political existence in contemporary Nigeria, as well as how to save their tribe from extinction. You cannot be sandwiched by major tribes and start fighting them from all sides. It just doesn't work.

Every ethnic group in Warri knows their place and have their monarchs. That is the status quo and no Itsekiri should attempt to claim the impossible. It won't work. Warri is collectively owned by Ijaw, Urhobo and Itsekiri (each controlling their areas) and the city is generally populated by Urhobos.

CC:Lalasticlala, this should be on FP

The funniest thing is that Warri is mostly still a big village refusing to modernize save for a few flyovers.

ijaws are very evil. they have lost the cases in the courts of law. these ijaws want to claim the entire coastlines of Nigeria. ijaws are tenants in warri

Ijaw Land grabbers at it again....


These Ijaws ehn!

USAbabe:
Ijaw people should stand against any form of threats around them

Those itshekiris are not to b trusted

The Ijaws are the actual THREATS to the very existence of every ethnic nationality in the South South.
Stop playing victim, the ijaws are known to be agressors and notorious for Land grabbing.

Who named Ogbe Ijaw "New Warri" ? So because Ode Itsekiri is called Big warri (Which is what Ode Itsekiri actually means in English), the Ijaws too now want to name their Ogbe Ijo "New Warri" ? lol

The name "Warri" is historically associated with the Itsekiri Ethnic nationality, and any attempt by the expansionist Ijaws to appropriate that name to themselves will NOT WORK.

fratermathy:
Itsekiris should stop fanning the embers of discord. What is there in living peacefully with your ethnic neighbours? Must you claim that the whole Delta belong to you before you can have peace of mind?

Every ethnic group in the Lower Niger migrated there at some point. We aren't aborigines of the lands we currently occupy and so I wonder how the Itsekiris think they actually own the land when it is proven historically that they are the most recent settlers in the region. Because of their romance with the colonial masters, they were able to oppress the Ijaws and Urhobos in Warri, change the title of their monarch to reflect the entire Warri as if they solely own it and marginalise other ethnicities in Warri. The crises of 1999-2003 have not taught them any lesson.

Itsekiris should leave land issue and start focusing on their political existence in contemporary Nigeria, as well as how to save their tribe from extinction. You cannot be sandwiched by major tribes and start fighting them from all sides. It just doesn't work.

Every ethnic group in Warri knows their place and have their monarchs. That is the status quo and no Itsekiri should attempt to claim the impossible. It won't work. Warri is collectively owned by Ijaw, Urhobo and Itsekiri (each controlling their areas) and the city is generally populated by Urhobos.

CC:Lalasticlala, this should be on FP

I think for once you should drop your hate for the Itsekiri aside and realize that the Ijaws are the real threat here, not the Itsekiris.

An adage says when a member of one's household is eating a bad insect and no one warns him/her against its adverse effects, the groaning and wailing of agony will not let the entire household sleep at night.
That is what you and the majority of Urhobo people are doing, burying your heads in the sand and making the enemy of your enemy your "friend". Until the other enemy is out of the picture, you will discover that your own heads are next on the guillotine of Ijaw expansionist agenda.

jared007:
WARRI—THE Ijaw People Development Initiative, IPDI, and Niger Delta Scholars, NDS, Warri, Delta State, have expressed concern over the recent claim by the Alpha-May Club, an Itsekiri organization, that the Itsekiri ethnic nationality owns New Warri, also known as Ogbe-Ijoh.

National Coordinator of NDS, Chief Monday Keme, said, yesterday: “We are not surprised at this claim because it is the internal desire of Itsekiri to wipe away Ogbe-Ijoh from Warri leading to the famous Warri crises.

“We do not want to be reminded of our unpleasant past. The
three ethnic groups, Ijaw, Itsekiri and Urhobo, all know their boundaries in Warri South Local Government Area. We, therefore, call on men of conscience to rise and condemn comments capable of causing ethnic crisis in Warri and its environs.

“For the records, ‘New Warri or Ogbe-Ijoh’ comprises two leases: B2 Volume one, dated 30/7/1906 (360 acres) and lease B5 Volume one, dated 15/7/1908 (180 acres) making a total of 540 acres and not 350 acres as claimed by the Itsekiri.

“It must be added here for the course of subsequent history, that New Warri, known as Ogbe-Ijoh, belongs to the Ogbe-Ijoh people and the past and present leaders of Ogbe-Ijoh have exercised considerable rights over these parcels of land. The Warri Assessment report, 1927, Nigerian Civil Service List and Handbook of 1910 (page 27), land leased all confirmed Ogbe-Ijoh ownership of new Warri or Ogbe-Ijoh, including Chief Dore Numa’s letter to Ogbe-Ijoh people dated 1923,” the group said.

Similarly, the Ijaw People Development Initiative, IPDI, in a statement by its National President, Austin Ozobo, said: “It is pertinent to note that the Itsekeri were visitors to Ijawland. This is a fact you cannot put under the carpet.

“They were nursed and were given Adirimo, an Ijaw woman, from Ogulagha to raise the purported Itsekiri Kingdom. It will interest the public to note that Itsekiri did not own any area in Ogbe-Ijoh, Forcados and Escravos. The aforesaid places are ancient Ijaw settlements. No Itsekiri settlement is found in Forcados, Ogbe-Ijoh and Escravos in Delta State.

“The era of parading with pirated or falsified document is over. How can a man who visited Ijaw at Amatu and Orueselemo and squatted for several decades turn to own such lands?.
”http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/05/groups-slam-itsekiri-claim-new-warri/
Cc lalasticlala

I have said it before and will say it again, both ijaw and itsekiri have no ancestral lands in warri.. That warri belongs to urohbo nation. Urohbo people are just weak to claim their ancestral land. There will be a thread where I will tell IJAW who they are of which they won't disagree with me but for itsekiri, they are mischievous like their brothers in the west.

explorer250:
ijaws are very evil. they have lost the cases in the courts of law. these ijaws want to claim the entire coastlines of Nigeria. ijaws are tenants in warri

Stop there. Both ijaw and itsekiri are tenants in warri.

OAUTemitayo:
Ignoramus who is fighting Itsekiris?
Can't you just grow a brain?

you Itsekiri people you think you are clever setting up confusion everywhere setting up Urhobo to fight Ijaw so that you can all enjoy the spoils. but i want to tell you something today. the day Urhobo and Ijaw start fighting on a full scale i and my boys will drag Itsekiri into the fight.