BENIN—FRESH tension is brewing between
the Yoruba and the Benin Traditional Council,
as the Esogban of Benin Kingdom, Chief David
Edebiri, described as absolute falsehood and
provocative, the claim by the Oore of
Mobaland, Oba James Adedapo Popoola, that
until 1914, Benin Obas were buried in IIe-Ife.
He also described as untenable, the claim by
Oba Popoola that the Oba of Benin is number
four in the cadre of Yoruba kings.
The Esogban was reacting to an interview
granted by Oba Popoola to a national
newspaper (not Vanguard).
Speaking to Vanguard in Benin City, Chief
Edebiri, who is also the Odionwere of Benin
Kingdom, said the position of Oba Popoola
was misleading and must not be taken
seriously.
According to him: “It is absolute falsehood to
say that Benin Obas were taken to Ile- Ife for
burial. It never happened in our history. The
precursor of this present dynasty, Oranmiyan,
who came from Ife as requested by the Benin
people, went back alive when he felt that he
could not cope with the politics of Benin. He
went back to Ife. Maybe, he was the one who
died there and was buried and they now claim
that Benin Obas were buried in Ife. I think that
is where the notion came from.
The Oba that came after Oraminyan, Eweka I,
died and was buried here according to Benin
traditional rites, within the palace environment.
No Bini man can claim to know where the
kings are buried. The two successive obas, the
children of Eweka 1, both of them ruled within
a space of two years, they died and they were
buried here.
“So, I pity the Kabiyesi because in the first
place, according to him, he is now 17 years on
the throne. Maybe, he wants relevance and to
be able to do that, he made his wild claims.
But what surprises me is, why drag Benin into
their problems? If he wanted relevance in his
area he should not bring Benin into it. These
two Obas in quick succession ruled in Benin
and were not taken to Ife.
“One can only imagine what it entailed at that
time to carry a corpse from Benin to Ife for
burial. What was the method of preservation,
what was the method of transportation of the
remains being carried to Ife and that was done
each time an Oba here joined his ancestors? It
is not true at all, absolutely untrue. What I
want to advise these people is, in the history
of a people, you have history and you have
fable and you have folklore. It is possible this
is one of their fables which has no sanctity of
historical facts.
“So, to bring what I am saying vividly, the
most prominent Benin king that everybody
knows about is Ewuare I. I will tell you what
the doyen of Benin history, Late Dr Jacob
Egharevba, recorded about his death and burial
that was in 1440. In the short history of Benin
by Dr J.U Egharevba, page 17 says: “Ewuare
died after a long reign and was buried at Esi,
near Udo” Udo is in Ovia West Local
Government Area, “as commanded before his
death.”
“This was the oba who commanded that if he
died because he was sick, they should not
bury him in Benin City, they should take him to
Esi, his own mother’s village, to bury. Up-till
this time, we are talking, the burial place is
preserved, and every Oba who wants to
ascend the throne in Benin must go there to
perform certain ceremonies. The ascension of
Oba Ewuare II was not exempted from this.
So, that tells you that there is no iota of truth
in the issue. It is a mere figment of their
imagination. It is not true. Many of the Yoruba
kings today are products of the royal family of
Benin. Their lines were begun by Benin people
from here but we have never said they should
bring their corpses to us.
“In Benin, it is a taboo to bring the corpse of
your son to you. If it is true, as claimed by the
Ooni of Ife who is the father of Oranmiyan
which we do not dispute, and Oranmiyan did
not stay here in Benin till his death, he went
back to Ife, why should he wait for his grand
children’s corpse to be brought to him each
time any of them passesd on here?
“There is no sense in it that you just sit down
somewhere in Ife waiting for the corpses of
your grandchildren to be brought to you. What
do you do with it? So you can see that there is
no sense in that” he stated.
On the claim that the Oba of Benin was the
fourth in the cadre of Yoruba kings, Chief
Edebiri said: “This is an oba I am hearing of
for the first time and I am sure many people
who read that story, would have come across
that news for the first time. All the cock and
bull stories that he told in that interview that
he is the announcer of the passage of Ooni of
Ife, well that suits him, if his duty is to
announce the passage of another king.
“He cannot claim to be number four in Yoruba
land because that is in direct conflict with
what the Alake of Egbaland was saying a few
months ago. The political connection we had
with them, we successfully severed the
connection in 1963 when we had the plebiscite
that created Midwest Region.
So, we have nothing to do with their
classification, they can go on with whatever
they think they are. The Oba of Benin cannot
be classified with any of them. Maybe it is not
generally known that some of the most
progressive kingdoms in the Yorubaland have
kings who have direct connection with the
royal family of Benin. Maybe they do not even
know.”

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/02/no-benin-oba-buried-lle-ife-esogban-benin-edebiri/

The everlasting battle between the Binis & Yorubas continues...

Ok...una no dey tire?..nansense

tell them.

thesicilian:
The everlasting battle between the Binis & Yorubas continues...

there is no battle even the Ooni of Ife has Said it himself that Benin is first.

The political connection we had
with them, we successfully severed the
connection in 1963 when we had the plebiscite
that created Midwest Region.


Yoruba you hear ,bye,bye and good luck.

ritababe:


there is no battle even the Ooni of Ife has Said it himself that Benin is first.

Then I guess the battle is among the Yoruba's themselves. And it is not surprising, the Binis have one ruler, the OBA of Benin. The Yoruba's have over 200 Obas.

.

the head of Yoruba king is an Igbo man,
he is the eze ndigbo of akure
even the the deji of Akure knows him

..

There will keep being confusion on this issue until the issue of the Igbo aborigines of Ile Ife (the Lucumi) is willingly addressed and acknowledged.The Lucumi people were led by Obatala, who was also called Oba Igbo and Obi Osere Igbo. The last Obatala before the warrior Oduduwa and the heroine Moremi liberated Ile Ife for the Yorubas was Oba Igbo Oreluere. His son Prince (later Eze) Chima was the last titular Prince of Benin, the same way the crown Prince of England, Prince Charles is also the titular Prince of Wales.

This is where the confusion comes from.It was only after Ogiso Owodo that the Benin people started having Obas. Before then, they had approached the Igbo aborigines of Uhe (Ile Ife) with the proposal to provide them with titular princes in the manner I have staTed above. For more get this kindle book:https://www.amazon.com/History-Igbo-World-Ancient-Civilization-ebook/dp/B01K4AIUO8

KingOvoramwen1:
THE ROYAL PALACE HAS SET THIS STRAIGHT TIMES WITHOUT NUMBER BUT THOSE GOATS WILL STILL TRY TO CONCORT DIRTY LIES!!

yh, the goats in the person of the Esogban keep saying shitt