₦airaland Forum

agbotaen: 1. i will give you clear evidence , biafra captured midwest on 9th august 1967 , three months later , the nigerian army recaptured ika area, and in 1968 , nigeria army station was established in owa alero , and another one in umunede and from there they expelled biafra from ika land and old midwest in general.
2. during the war , 99 percent of ika kings and nobilities were members of midwest leaders of thought and our people rejected being igbo and they did assist the nigeria army in expelling biafra from ika land.
3. dont forget that an ika man in name of ogbemudia was governor of midwest and one of the key military officer ,but we had an uncle in person of anuku who was commander of biafran army , but that was not enough to sway majority of ika people to support igbos .
4. i said 99 percent because we still had some ika people from igbodo and ekwuoma who supported biafra and they suffered some harsh reactions .
5. general muritala was a major personality that dealt a grevious blow on biafra in the midwest and for your information he resided in ika land and in particular in owa kingdom during the war and he was even given a chieftancy title called ojeba of owa, he was turf on biafra but compasionate on ika/owa people , i have pictures of him in our family archives because my father used to go and see him , even when he became head of state ,his mother was of edo origin.
6. ika people in their majority have declared their ethnicity and they are ika , we have relationship with igbos ,and we also have relationship and blood line with edos , so if igbos respect us we will respect them and if they dont we will not respect them and for all intent ika people are just a nation and we do not claim to come from same place but we have united as ika people , even in owa kingdom not all owa people come from the same origin but over a long period we have united as owa kingdom, and in ika we have many dialects spoken too.just like any other language and we even have those that speak ozara language and they are bonafide ika people ,so ika is a nation because it contains many groups of people united under one ethnicity and the uniting factor amongst ika people is the benin-edo factor.
7. when the war ended general gowon came to agbor to declare the end of the biafra war and that is to show you that agbor and ika is very strategic area in nigeria.
8.in 1702 , dutch historian nyandel lived in agbor ,so we have ika history well recorded.
9. in 1910 sir walter egerton , one british assistant governor was travelling from lagos to calabar and he wrote in his diary that he was lucky to have passed agbor , where the people are hostile , and in 1930 , we made the universal declaration to the british that we do not belong to any tribal group in nigeria and that we ikas are a nation of our own, and on records our fathers fought against any form of colonialism under any body as we rebelled against benin and same thing happened against igbos in 1967 , so let that be a lesson on any ethnic group that wants to claim ika as their own.

CyberG: It is quite stupi.d of you to compare an apple to an orange! MASsobs antecedents are well known in Nigeria and can not be compared to the boy killed by Met Police. Well, assuming you are sure, will you BOLDLY lead the mob to attack and burn down the police stations? Now only a few criminal secessionists have been killed and you cry, a mob advancing on a police station will bring out all the soldiers and mopols in the barracks and you know what they will do? The same thing that is being done to BH. The same thing that happened during the police action of 1967! MASSOB = BH = terrorists!

CyberG: While some people were working hard, you people were retardeening yourself. If the party is rigged out like your people helped to install the demented retardeen, well the Nigerians who live in Naija will be the one crying why I just come here to laugh them off.

Desola: Ala ti o le se: A dream that can never come to pass.

The new party should field a Igbo man at their own peril as no Hausa or Yoruba person would vote for him even if Fashola were to be his running mate.

I reject that for Nigeria - Amen!

Abagworo: Has anyone ever asked why it is only among Igbos that someone that speaks Igbo language as his 1st and only language denies affinity to the greater Igbo? Was it always like this? Granted the Europeans aided in creation of the Igbo identity( but it is also same across Nigeria and Africa) why then is the case of Igbo different? Why is Agbotaen et al trying their best to dis-link the kinship they share with other Igbos. Why are they trying so much to lean on the Benin side of their history rather than accepting the truth even as told by the Obi?

The answer is simple. The failed coup of 1966 which was tagged Igbo coup had a multiplier effect on the feeling of other Nigerians towards Igbos and the resultant war and the war propaganda worsened it. The Igbos lost the trust other Nigerians had for them and anybody that had the option of dual ethnicity would hurriedly drop the Igbo part and some went as far as modifying their languages.

The other question is "would denying your Igbo kinship help you gain acceptance?". IMHO, it can only give a temporary relief from the immediate situation but will hunt you in the long run. For example here on Nairaland, a lot of non-Igbos believe Agbotaen has a genuine case without knowing what is involved. Agbotaen would feel that his campaign of distinct ethnicity had met success among non-Igbos but realized it hit the rock when some (Igbo)Ikas were caught as the kidnappers of Osun speaker's wife. Most non-Igbos immediately accused Igbos of bringing kidnapping to SW without knowing fully well that it is the same (Igbo) Ikas that they had all these while lent Agbotaen support of distinctness.

My advice to the Igbos in Delta State is to think twice and never believe that sudden change in ethnicity will make all those other Nigerians view them differently. It is still on record that most of the Igbo officers that were involved in the 1966 coup were from present Delta State. It is also as a result of the coup that the polgrom against all Igbos happened and the resultant Biafran war as well.

Ojiofor: This guy is simply shameless just look at him quoting one thousand,five thousand years as if his so called Owa clan has a recorded history.
Do you have any document to back up all the rubbish coming from you?the answer is no.My papa told me that his papa told him that one id..iot came from bini a thousand yrs ago...which calender were they using to count ur thousands of yrs....Igbo market days of course.....yeye man...ur so called superior bini culture(because they have a village head called oba) couldnt give u ordinary week days u are still making do with EKE ORIE NKWO AND AFOR as local calender.Wait on the day of reckoning we shall march you back to bini....anupam.

agbotaen: my igbo friend , i am from owa kingdom and my father and uncles told me that owa was founded over a thousand years ago by adagba who came from ikoha in ovia local government of benin and founded owa -ofien the first settlement in owa and later ugbasogun another benin war leader founded owa ekei and owa-oyibu was founded by benin and ishan people led by their leader called edo aigbedion and a royal prince from agbor called omi eborwise founded owa-alero and later other ishan and ika people founded other villages in alero , and about 500 years later prince odogun from ute-okpu who was a general of the benin army migrated to owa and conquered many of the people and there was a tough battle between him and ofien people and the oba of benin had to settle the conflict around the late 12th century and it was decided in favour of odogun who was crowned obi of a unified owa kingdom , while the ofien people were given the title of olihe-ovia -he who crowns the king ,and i was also told that my ancestor was the second king of owa kingdom and his name was igbedigin no gidigan the great warrior and he also founded idumu-ezomor in owa-oyibu and that prince omigie was one of his principal son and that is our family name till today , igbedigin ruled owa in the 13th century , so mr igbo , you can see how long our family has our history intact and it is not like most igbo people that cant even tell their family history 200 years back we have about 700 years of family history and i can even give you names of my ancestors till date .
so whatever trash you write that is your business , and as for you propagandist , why dont you ask your ogbuefi why the people of igbodo rejected an igbo wife from ebonyi for their obi ? and why they chased the igbo woman from igbodo palace ? and why did they tell him to marry either igbodo person or ika or bini or ishan or an anioma woman? if majority of the community know that they are igbo?
. i know when the chips are down majority of ika people will tell you they are ika ,that is all , so please get your ogbuefi to give you the usuall tales by moon light on why the majority of igbodo people rejected an igbo wife ?
owa has a greeting called adagba ni ikoha and it means owa those whose ancestors came from ikoha ,we have never denied igbo migration into ika or owa ,but why do most igbo people hate to hear the truth that edo people founded ika ,and ika people have never said we are bini ,but we say we are ika and we are not igbo shikena ,
owa kingdom up till today greets the same way that some bini villages greet ,and it goes like this---------------
1. we greet liye ,and laiwe
2. laiweze
3. ojogun
4. during meals we greet kada
5. after meals we greet lakpoma which is thanks sir/ma
for those who want to die about our edo heritage , please note that most owa and ika surnames are bini names .
6. owa also have ikenga from igbo land and also bear igbo names which are more recent happenings, owa migratory pattern also shows nri culture in it .