RE-OGBE IJAW MARKET: IPDI BOILS, FIRES ITSEKIRI GROUP, WARNS TIDI TO WITHDRAW HIS APPOINTMENT

We have watched with key interest the failed attempt and drama by the Ijaw Peoples Development Initiative, IPDI and the Ijaw Peoples Watch Dog (IPWD) wherein through their respective juveniles in history made a public display of their hollowness about their true status as customary tenants in Warri Kingdom. 

Since the duo of Comr. Mayor Timi Ogobiri and Comr. Paul Akpowaide, speaking respectively for IPDI and IPWD has publicly shown that they were not told their true identity by their ancestors in Warri Kingdom, and displayed their crass ignorance about the various issues they made in response to the Movement for the Protection of Iwere Homeland, Development and History (MPIHDH) applauding of the legal, constitutionally correct, and morally right decision of the Chairman of Warri South Local Government Area, Hon.Michael Tidi in appointing an Itsekiri as Market Master in Dore Numa market, the Movement-MPIHDH wishes to set the record straight for the sake of the reading public and of the Delta State government.

Hon. Tidi Appointment of market master.

The appointment of the market master by Hon. Michael Tidi correctly falls within the purview of his constitutional powers. The Fourth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (As Amended) expressly and manifestly puts the administration and maintenance of markets in various local government areas of the country squarely under the control of local government.

By implications, since this is a constitutional matter, the call on the amiable governor of Delta State, His Excellency, Sen. Dr Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa to reverse the correct decision of the council helmsman, further confirmed the level of the depth the Ijaw groups has sank in enjoying the usurping of the rule of law, supremacy of the Constitution, separation of powers, and promotion of justice which are the hallmark of a democracy. As a man who have risen from the grassroot to where he currently occupies and with a very deep knowledge about the true facts about the history of Warri, the governor expectedly will not fall into such a trap through malicious publication and pressure that is aimed at putting him in bad light before Deltans. Asking the governor to do so without recourse to section 9 of the same Constitution, is asking him to commit a political suicide in order to please the Ijaw to his detriment and the enforcement of illegality which previous administrations has done in their favour and to the discomfort of all Deltans.

On Ownership of Warri, Dore Numa and building of palace on land bought from Okumagba.

It is no more a surprise that the Ijaw have a fraudulent name for every land they migrate to as customary tenants. Some of the following examples will point to this desperate attempts to change historical facts. They changed Okerenghigho to Okerenkoko, Gbabo to Oporoza, Ubakokodie to Kokodiagbene, AjaPepe to Pepediagbene, Ogheye-Akpata to Awpawtawgbene and Iwere or Warri, they have corruptly and criminally changed to "Wari". In fact, it is no more news that for every indigenous land, the Ijaw customary tenants have a name for it. It is part of the Kaima declaration. It is an expansionist agenda. Therefore, the Movement wishes to state emphatically that there is no traditional, international historical accounts or intelligence report where the Ijaws have been said to own Warri or anything called Wari. Those names only exist in the figment of the imagination of the authors.

Chief Dore Numa is the Itsekiri Paramount ruler who was among those that signed the 1914 almalgation treaty that birthed Nigeria. He is from the Itsekiri royal lineage of Princess Uwala. Chief Dore Numa cousin, Chief Chanomi, was very instrumental in helping the ancestors of these present day miscreants to secure the permission of Omadino community elders to stay in these areas as customary tenants before spreading to where they are today by Warri corner.If Ijaws own Warri as they have consistently failed to do both in court and elsewhere, how come the man they foolishly claimed was adopted from Benin river became the one in charge of all trades, commerce and significantly all land leases signed with the colonial masters in the place designated as WARRI today with no single document showing this Ijaw spurious claims? 

Since Ginuwa 1 till date, twenty traditional monarchs (Olus) have been crowned as Olu of Warri. The Ijaw group who wants reasonable people and government to believe their claims, should at least silent us by showing just ONE IJAW man who has ruled as Pere of Warri. So how come, strangers are the ones in charge of your land? 

Late Chief Benjamin Okumagba is Itsekiri maternally from Okere community. Unfortunately, all through his lifetime, the lie that he sold a piece of land to the Olu to build a palace was never substantiated. A man whose father is from Okpare in Ughelli certainly cannot sell land in a place where he died as a customary tenant. More so, if the Ijaw own "WARI" why is it that it was an alleged transaction of land by an Urohbo man from Okpare another total stranger in Warri, that they so much rely on to buttress this false claim? So, the land owned by the Ijaw (Wari) was sold to an Itsekiri and the receipt was issued by an Urohbo man and the money kept by him. Inconsistency of facts at its height.Wonderful tales by moonlight.

Olu Ginuwa marriage to an Ijaw woman, claim of Itsekiri maternity to Ijaw, Egbekumo and Ijijen.

The Movement-MPIHDH will not dissipate positive energy in this areas which was filled with so much ignorance. The Itsekiri ethnic natiinality as a people has long existed before Olu Ginuwa 1 came around 1480. The aboriginal communities of Ugborodo, Innorin, Okotomo-Irigbo, Omadino, Ureju etc have been well established before the emergence of Olu Ginuwa 1. It is a fact that the PEOPLE usually predate a KINGDOM. Therefore, by foolishly trying to link the beginning of Itsekiri ethnic nationality existence on their God given lands of Warri Kingdom to the coming of Olu Ginuwa 1, speaks so much volume of the kind of briefs Comrade Ozobo Austin is been celebrated for in Ijaw nation. 

As for the name Egbekumo been one of Olu Ginuwa's sons from an Ijaw woman, this is indeed another joke taken too far. Apart from being the first time we are hearing this name, it is foolishness to assume that in powerful African traditional and customary system of marriage, the mother name is the name the alleged first son of a king will bear. More so, we are currently on a serious research to unravel the fact that Olu Irame and Olu Ijijen mother was an Ijaw woman. 

In conclusion, we wish to reiterate the fact that the scores of the infamous Warri crisis is never lost on those with the true facts. The use of its memory to invoke fear can only be achieved in the minds of those who do not know how it ended.

The Council Chairman, Hon. Michael Tidi, has done the right thing by appointing an Itsekiri person as Market Master in Dore Numa market in Warri. We applaud him. No amount of blackmail, falsification of facts and the threat of a renewed war in Warri by strangers who do not have any stake in Itsekiri homelands hence they easily resort to violent destruction of property and wanton killing of innocent souls, will change the appointment. Like we said earlier, those who want to be market master should go to their communities where they came from to assume such positions not in Warri kingdom.

Courtesy: Movement for the Protection of Iwere Homeland, Development and History, MPIHDH.

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