By Adiele Samuel

Ikwerre youths have said that according to history, the people of Ikwerre are actually Igbos. The youths, in an epistle signed by one of their leaders, Adiele Samuel said that the reason why they were forced to deny their Igbo roots was to avoid being shortchanged in Nigeria during and after the Civil War.

Read for yourself: “We the youths of Ikwerre extraction, Elele, Ubima, Isiokpo, Ogbakiri, Omademe, Obiri Ikwerre, Rumuigbo, Rumuola, Rumukurushi, Rumuokoro, etc wish to make known our position as regards to Biafra movement.

The Ikwerre is a sub group of Igbo in the Niger Delta headquartered in Isiokpo Ancient Kingdom, we are some time classified as a separate ethnic group in Rivers State, if you call us Igbo you are not wrong and if you call us Ikwerre you are equally not wrong.

There are reasons behind the creation of Rivers State, one was to frustrate the Biafran dream and two was to divide the Igbo ethnic group being regarded as separatist tribe.

The division of old Eastern Nigeria no doubt was based on popular demands by the non Igbo speaking communities due to fear of marginalization, loosing their identity and other lies peddled by Nigeria Government.

When Rivers State was carved out from the east, there was need to divide the Igbo, on the process, part of Igbo communities were carved into Rivers State which resulted to identity crises, as some started rewriting the Ikwerre history to please the North.

The name Ikwerre is as if you are asking a question and then someone from Imo State replies you “Nkwerre” which is an LGA in the State.

The problem of most of our youth is that they rely on what their grand fathers told them without studying wide. In Eli kwerre, if you have not married from Imo you are not in line, most Ikwerre wives are Imolites and we speak Igbo even more than some Igbos who claims to be original Igbo.

The identity crisis in Rivers State started immediately after the war, some claim Bini origin, notable of them is Elechi Amadi the author of the Concubine, in all his books has promoted the Igbo culture but in a surprised move denounced his Igboness before Justice Oputa who reminded him of his Igbo names and Igboid language, No Igbo speaks the same. We can not admit our Igbo identity except during elections like Amaechi”. Ikwerre Meka

http://www.easternradio.com.ng/2016/05/we-are-igbos-but-denied-igbo-because-of.html

I've heard of the marriage to Imo rule in many Ikwerre communities. This is very much in line with most Igbo migratory patterns. You can go anywhere but you must comeback to marry from your community. It's good to see that after almost a century this tradition is still alive and allow igbos to trace their true origins.


Though I do believe that the igbos that came in from Imo to Ikwerre intermarried with many of the locals. Many Igbos eventually became kings in these domains. Asari Dokubo said that all the royals in Kalabari Kingdom are igbo. Then there's famous examples like Jaja of Opobo etc etc. My own great grandfather was a successful businessman in the area now known as Rivers and was never for 1 day not a member of his community in Imo state.


Though I wonder if Ikwerre have inheritance in Imo? Their ancestors that traveled to rivers must have owned land as sons of the soil.

Ikwerre is more Igboitic than Nsuka in Enugu State. Who said Ikwerre isn't Igbo is confusing himself.

Who's to say who's Igbo and who's not Igbo? or who's more igbo than the other?
Nsukka is where igbos became the first black africans to build their own modern university (UNN). It's vital to our history and legacy as a people.

Abagworo and hopeathand, ngwanu!


meanwhile,the war has been over for over four decades. why are they still denying their Igbo identity?

Watch how a particular tribe in the South will call these youths IPOB youths.

Nnamdi Kanu has succeeded in uniting the SS and SE.

The descendants of the fallen angel in the South won't like this news

Beremx:
Abagworo and hopeathand, ngwanu!


meanwhile,the war has been over for over four decades. why are they still denying their Igbo identity?

I don't see any denials in recent years. Maybe from old men but old men have been a cancer to this contraption of a Nigeria for all nations and lead in confuction.

IPOB in Igweocha

Why the fight and complaints ?


as far as i am concerned , Elele, Ubima, Isiokpo, Ogbakiri, Omademe, Obiri Ikwerre, Rumuigbo, Rumuola, Rumukurushi, Rumuokoro, Ijaw, and whatever the faaack you represent


Y'all look the same to me


Yeebos

EasternLeopard:
Watch how a particular tribe in the South will call these youths IPOB youths.

Nnamdi Kanu has succeeded in uniting the SS and SE.

The descendants of the fallen angel in the South won't like this news

Let this be the sound track of their misery

Liberation Fighters in Igweocha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CYHDe6keHQ

Ofodirinwa:


I don't see any denials in recent years. Maybe from old men but old men have been a cancer to this contraption of a Nigeria for all nations and lead in confuction.

IPOB in Igweocha

I had an Ikwerre male friend who kept telling me he's not Igbo but a Niger deltan. he's a youth like me. I ask him if there's anything ethnic groups like ND and he ignores my question. I disagree with you that Ikwerre youths of these days don't deny their identity. it's worse today.

Beremx:
I had an Ikwerre male friend who kept telling me he's not Igbo but a Niger deltan. he's a youth like me. I ask him if there's anything ethnic groups like ND and he ignores my question. I disagree with you that Ikwerre youths of these days don't deny their identity. it's worse today.

There are stupid people everywhere, we can't run around chasing their opinions because they'll eventually be of no consequence. The level of passion for IPOB in Igweocha is the highest of city other that Aba. The people that speak with sense and know their history will tell you their Igbo. Even Asari Dokubo has cited that he's an Igbo man, what will now make Chigozie Ezebule a Nigg3r Deltan? Can he say Niger Delta in the Ikwerre Language?

There's a strong general awakening in the SS. There will always be the ignorant but there's no time for them in this mission.

Igweocha youths standing firm under a hail of live zoo bullets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1DRG7j3FG0

Ofodirinwa:


Let this be the sound track of their misery

Liberation Fighters in Igweocha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CYHDe6keHQ

Nnamdi Kanu and pro-minority Igbos have finally destroyed the propaganda of the descendants of the fallen angel

One SS and SE.

Very strange news. I still know some will rather die than accept being Igbo. It is well. The news deserves front page so that others can adjust accordingly. Please Lalasticlala make it FP.
Before I could call Hopeathand he was here already...

Beremx:



meanwhile,the war has been over for over four decades. why are they still denying their Igbo identity?

dont make it seem like its an awful thing being Igbo. Igbos do not neccessarily need Ikwerres for anything. We do not also need Igbos.

And anyone can form any group and make statements on its behalf. Ogbakor Ikwerre decides our socio-political direction.

Waiting for hopeathand to come tell us something different. Observing in 4D

Berem, i know you were a chief supporter of Buhari. I want to know your opinion on how things are going in Nigeria right now. Everywhere I look its

N7000 tomatoes
Strike
Militancy
bombing
herdsmen genocide
herdsmen pillaging
herdsmen raping
falling currency
eternal blackouts
record high fuel price
fuel scarcity
food scarcity
forex scarcity
Aisha Buhari's 45 thousand dollar tuition in a british school
95% v. 5%
Police extra-judicial killings
Jailing opposition and refusing release despite court orders
Jailing critics and refusing release despite court orders
Fake chibok girls
International travels
1.5 years to pass a single 2016 budget, talkless of a 2017 budget they should be preparing to propose.

Giving herdsmens free land is the only initiative I've heard this administration pursuit and it has even the SW ready for war if it happens.

HopeAtHand:


dont make it seem like its an awful thing being Igbo. Igbos do not neccessarily need Ikwerres for anything. We do not also need Igbos.

And anyone can form any group and make statements on its behalf. Ogbakor Ikwerre decides our socio-political direction.

My dear, are you talking on behalf of Ikwerre people? are you sure they agree with you?
Well, i am yet to see any Ikwerre man or woman who says he's Igbo. Same as Anioma.

Honestly, this kind of topic breaks my heart.

U r Emeka. Ur sister is ijeoma ,Ur surnames is Chukwuma , ur mother tongue is igbotic, but u said u r not Igbo
Noo ,na olusegun obasanjo and tinubu be Igbo
Iranu ,abacha

EzePromoe:
There are many twists to this story but the obvious truth is that it is impossible for me distance myself from the Igbo heritage because the more I do that the more my culture, my local food, my ambience oozes in contradiction. I don't blame any Ikwerre who denies being Igbo because a group like the Ezzas would do worse if they weren't carved along into the South East. They have everything to prove that they aren't Igbos e.g language. The problem with our youths today is that we've lost touch of history (the fact that Africans don't read isn't new to us anyway), so it will be easy to be brainwashed by someone who read just two pages of Elechi Amadi's novel. And we talk about the disunity amongst Igbo groups as another underlying factor. Save for the little effort of the Ohaneze there's hardly any affront championing unity amongst Igbos. It's just as if we're silently competing amongst ourselves, for what if I may ask? I think we need to learn a lesson in the hard way that will See us running to one another for succour, I think that's the best way to learn that we're more of brothers than competitors to ourselves.

Ikwerre's are like the prodigal sons of Igboland and would always be welcomed back whenever they realized their folly.

HopeAtHand:


dont make it seem like its an awful thing being Igbo. Igbos do not neccessarily need Ikwerres for anything. We do not also need Igbos.

And anyone can form any group and make statements on its behalf. Ogbakor Ikwerre decides our socio-political direction.

I don't think you are more ikwerre than i, so don't categorize what you don't know.

i was waiting for you to come and express your inferiority complex here.

If indeed you are nwodiele you won't be speaking this trash,unless you have a personal issues with our igbo brothers.

Beremx:
Abagworo and hopeathand, ngwanu!


meanwhile,the war has been over for over four decades. why are they still denying their Igbo identity?

It remains a mystery to many of us

Beremx:
My dear, are you talking on behalf of Ikwerre people? are you sure they agree with you?
Well, i am yet to see any Ikwerre man or woman who says he's Igbo. Same as Anioma.

Honestly, this kind of topic breaks my heart.

Why shouldn't the topic break your heart when you guys plans for we Niger deltans are failing as the day goes by, anyway as for me and my household we are more Igbo's more than some villages in the south east.

Take it or leave it,that one concern you.

ikwerre mekao!!!!

(R)Umuokuta---children of stone miners
(R)Umuodomaiya----children of palm wine tipers
(R)Umuokroshi-----children of people who practise okroshi masquerade
(R)Umuigbo------children of igbos
(R)umuokoro-children of okoro
(R)umuomasi----children of Omasi
(R)umuodara----

macluvph1:


Why shouldn't the topic break your heart when you guys plans for we Niger deltans are failing as the day goes by, anyway as for me and my household we are more Igbo's more than some villages in the south east.

Take it or leave it,that one concern you.

ikwerre mekao!!!!

who's fighting with this one? some people need to reset their brains before quoting me.

@Chinwude, ana m ekele o!

ewwhere




where is that my ikpu atulu known as hopeathand and where is oyim ezepromoe...make i come gbawa uzor hopeathand...usu rakwa......hopeathand


kedu beremx the nwa fulu efu...elewe ikpu ede cheque

Beremx:
who's fighting with this one? some people need to reset their brains before quoting me.

@Chinwude, ana m ekele o!

E pain am.

Sadist,you are confused as the present administration.

IIkwerre are not igbo...they have disowned themselves...now that oil has become so cheap that almost all igbo states has oil...now they want to claim igbo


They are Ikwerre petriod

Igbo have nothing ..absolutely nothing to do with them...ask ugomba

When you marry a riverside man that has a lot of kaikai in his blood stream ...you will always get high because the ejaculation in your blood is 88%Vol



Now bounce..Why are you like this



Anioma is not igbo....well it is ugomba that will deal with you,Not me

Beremx:
My dear, are you talking on behalf of Ikwerre people? are you sure they agree with you?
Well, i am yet to see any Ikwerre man or woman who says he's Igbo. Same as Anioma.

Honestly, this kind of topic breaks my heart.

Beremx:
My dear, are you talking on behalf of Ikwerre people? are you sure they agree with you?
Well, i am yet to see any Ikwerre man or woman who says he's Igbo. Same as Anioma.

Honestly, this kind of topic breaks my heart.

which Anioma are you talking about?
Pls don't display ignorance in public, deniers are in the minority.
Aniomas, we are proud Delta Igbos, we are not ikwerres.
We know our roots.

Beremx:
Abagworo and hopeathand, ngwanu!


meanwhile,the war has been over for over four decades. why are they still denying their Igbo identity?

look after your baby and leave politics for men

Meanwhile, were u @ cha cha wedding the ex maid of ur boss

smh