I took my time to study the above open letter to Governor Okowa credited to the urhobos of Warri. Every part of the open letter is laced with lies and misinformation by the authors.
In paragraph four the authors wrote “WE WISH TO REINSTATE HERE THAT WARRI METROPOLIS IS A COLLECTION OF INDEPENDENT URHOBO, IJAW AND ITSEKIRI KINGDOMS SEPARATED FROM EACH OTHER BY ROAD CULTURE AND TRADITIONS. IN WARRI METROPOLIS WE HAVE THE AGBARAHA WARRI, OKERE URHOBO AND OGBE IJAW WARRI AUTONOMOUS KINGDOM WITH TITTLE TO EVERY PEICE AND PARCEL OF THEIR LAND”. Why is the above statement false and misleading?
1. Ogbe Ijaw mentioned above is in Warri South West. ITS NOT IN WARRI SOUTH AS CLAIMED BY THE AUTHORS.
2. The Agbaraha Warri people are customary tenant to the Olu of Warri. Agbassa land is under the overlordship of the Olu of Warri. See Suit No. W/41/57, Suit No. W/121/57, Suits No. W/44/1941 and Suit No. W/3/1949 supreme Court in SC67/1971 & SC327/1972.
3. The Agbaraha people do not have tittle to the land they are on See Suit No. W/41/57, Suit No. W/121/57, Suits No. W/44/1941 and Suit No. W/3/1949 supreme Court in SC67/1971 & SC327/1972.
4. Okumagba family won a possessory right to 281.1 acres of their farmlands in Idimi Sobo in the Supreme Court suit #SC 309/74. This neither translates into ownership of all of Idimi Sobo. Curiously I will like to ask the so called Urhobos of Warri one simple question, why laced a paragraph with four different misinformation and lies? Why are you guys telling lies to the governor you are crying to?
In paragraph five they said “THEREFORE THE ITSEKIRI KING OGIAME ATUWATSE III OVERLORDSHIP DOES NOT IN ANY WAY EXTEND TO THE URHOBO PEOPLE OF OKERE URHOBO AND AGBARAHA WARRI KINGDOMS…..
The above statement was built on the wrong premise of paragraph four discusses above. This also made it false. In suite number SC67/1971 & SC327/1972 the highest court in the country declared the Agbassa people as customary tenants of the Olu of Warri. This is what they will remain forever.
On paragraph six the Urhobo of Warri hinted on how Agbaraha Warri ‘Itsekiri Kingdom’ and Okere Urhobo Kingdom where delaminated into 12 ward by INEC, they went further to list the so called 12 ward that made up Warri south. There are two issues to note here.
1. The urhobo of Warri forgot to tell the governor that the correct ward structure in Warri is 10 ward structure. That the 12 ward structure in use mentored above is illegal ward wrongly created as confirmed by competent court in suit number FHC/109/1997/82 and that INEC has failed to respect court judgment to use the correct 10 ward structure, that in the correct 10 ward structure the Itsekiri own the two Warri South constituencies as Itsekiri fully occupied 8 of the legal 10 wards.
2. The urhobos of Warri also failed to show the ward that is occupied by the Ogbe Ijaw kingdom they falsely mentioned as been in Warri south.
Again I will ask the Urhobos of Warri, “Why the misinformation?
In paragraphs 7, 8 and 9 the urhobos of Warri mentioned their right to contest any election and went on to talk about the Itsekiri seeing Warri federal constituency as Itsekiri right and urhobos not allowed to contest election in Warri South West and Warri North. It’s of interest to note that Warri federal constituency seat covers Warri South, Warri South West and Warri North local government areas. Of these urhobos can only be found in Warri south. Itsekiri are in the three mentioned local government. How is Itsekiri not allowing urhobos to contest election in the two local government of Warri South West and Warri North where there are no urhobos? Why the misinformation?
In summary the urhobos of Warri should note that Nigeria is a country with rule of law. The era of lies, misinformation and illegal trade off is over. Every group of people in Nigeria have the right to choose their leader and kingship is not synonymous with land tittle ownership. What they urhobos of Warri have failed to get through the court they think they can get it through lies, blackmail and intimidation.
A word is enough for the wise.