In his secession movement, late Isaac Adaka Boro declared a NIGER DELTA REPUBLIC for his Ijaw ethnic group that inhabits the southern tips of the Niger Delta region. From all indication, Isaac Adaka Boro perceived the Igbos and the Nigeriann society as persecuting his Ijaw peoples. In his definition of Igbos, the Ikweres of River state are included. Of course, that is natural. Ikwere tribe is one of the numerous tribes that constitute what is ethnologicaly defined as Igbo or Igboid.
The movement of Adaka Boro before his life was cuit short by the Nigerian forces in that war, was a true African renaissance movement. An Ijoid nation as envisioned by Boro is bound to protect the language of the Ijaw nation unlike the Ojukwu Biafra that is multi-ethnic, Adaka Boro’s Niger Delta was a homogeneous Ijaw nation. The people falsely including themselves into this Niger Delta today are many and that includes some Igbo tribes in today’s Rivers State mostly lead by some Ikwere youths fighting so hard b ut vainly to convince the rest of ‘Rivers’state that they are no longer the Igbo they are but ‘Rivers men and women. This is not entirely bad as every people have the right to say what and who they want to be. But at same time, it will be foolish for anyone to call Michael Jackson white when EVERY EVIDENCE indicates he is a negro.
The Niger Delta republic by Adaka Boro is much unaware of places called Cross River, Akwaibom, Edo and Urhobolands. Adaka Boro was definitive about his Niger Delta. If I was superstitious, I would have seen suprize and anger registerd on the face of his ghost seeing the way Igbos and Edo people are claiming and even trying to hijack the noble Ijaw nation he birthed. Tellingly, Isaac Adaka Boro have evry reason to avoid the Ikwere people in his Niger Delta. Whichever way one decides to look at it, whether they rename themselves Iwhuruohna or anything avilable to de-Igbonize themselves, one continues to see the Igbo in their language, cultures and traditional settings. Moreover, as Mr Irondi will inform us below, the Ikwere people openly and proudly identified themselves to be Igbo when it pays to be Igbo. Their Chiefs proudly attach Igbo to their names and everything they do.
The following link leads to Privy Council decision on Port Harcourt and the representatives of Ikwerre, Diobu or Port Harcourt and other Division with then Owerri Province.
niversity of California Press
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University of California Press Ltd
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Copyright @ 1974 by the Regents of University of California
ISBN: 0-520-02451-6
Library of Congress Card Number : 73-76115
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The following are from the above references. They clearly indicate that Ikwerre Chiefs, Ezes, Legislatures and Municipal councilors from time immemorial claim Igbo as their tribe. These Ikwerre Legislators, Parliamentarians and Municipal Councilors maintained that they are Igbo as the records indicate. I challenge Mr. Emeka Okala and Dr. M, D. Amadi to produce records with similar information in support of their claims.
In 1922/23 Port Harcourt in Ikwerre land became the Capital of Owerri province — Page 269
Appendix 2 Page 246
Port-Harcourt Parliamentarians from 1945 – 1966
Appendix 3 Page 247
Port Harcourt Municipal Councilors 1955 —- 1958
[b]D.D.”Diobu” Nsiegbe Ikwerre Ibo Port Harcourt Division
J.W. Ogbondah Ikwerre Ibo Diobu Port Harcourt Division
Appendix 4 Pages 248—250
Port Harcourt Municipal Councilors 1958 — 1961
E Aguma: Ikwerre Ibo Diobu Port Harcourt Division
M.W. Dickson: Ikwerre Ibo Diobu Port Harcourt Division
G.P.A. Nwagwu: Ikwerre Ibo Diobu Port Harcourt Division
J. A. Otuonye: Ikwerre Ibo Diobu Port Harcourt Division
R. O. Owuru Ikwerre Ibo Diobu Port Harcourt Division
Appendix 5 Pages 251 – 253
Port Harcourt Municipal Councilors 1961 – 1964
S.W. Atako: Ikwerre Ibo Port Harcourt Division
R. Chikere Ikwerre Ibo Port Harcourt Division
E. Chukwu Ikwerre Ibo Port Harcourt Division
Chief Joseph Wobo Ikwerre Ibo Port Harcourt Division[/b] nawa
Additional information can be extracted from the sources indicated above. The people have maintained that they are Igbo even when they were in Ricers Province.
As regards the name Ikwerre emanating from the people in a chorus “Ekwelam” we have agreed when Sir F.D. Laggard, the then Governor of Southern Nigeria asked the people a question, if they have agreed for their land to be used for the sea port and railway terminal through an Igbo interpreter is ludicrous and the greatest fabrication of the century. There was no Igbo interpreter or other Ikwerres from Isiokpo, Igruta, Elele or any other Ikwerre towns or villages that was associated with the negotiations for acquiring land for development of Port Harcourt that resulted in HAGROVE AGREEMENT of 1912, but Diobu people who are the owners of the land. The records indicated that Chief Daniel Kalio, the head of Okirika chiefs and and his assistant chief Samson Adoki were the interpreters. Chief Kalio was the chief negotiator for the colonist. He was paid three thousand for his services. The lands acquired for the terminal and seaport were Diobu farm lands of Iguocha and Obomotu. Iguocha and Obomotu are Ikwerre Ibo names.. The negotiations took place at chief Wobo and chief Atako compounds respectively.
In Sir Lugar’s dispatch No. 103, paragraph 10 to the secretary of state for the colonies he said, Inter alia:
“I have already taken steps to acquire the land before fictitious claims and artificial inflations should have increased the difficulty of acquisition. The occupiers belong to a single village named Diobu ——“
It did not mention Ikwerre but Diobu, even though Diobu is in Ikwerre a southern Igbo ethnic group. An Ikwerre man from Isiokpo, Iguruta, Choba etc, has nothing to do with land in Diobu. Land tenure in Igbo land including Ikwerre is based on family, linage, and village.
In another dispatch to the Secretary of State for the colonies dated August 1913, Lord Lugard stated that Iguocha and Obomotu are the lands on which the seaport and the terminal shall be built. He added that Iguocha and Obomotu are Ikwerre Ibo Names.
The Willinkson Commission of 1958
As it relates to Port Harcourt and ethic make up of Rivers Province, the Commission Stated in Chapter 5 of its report as follows:
“The Rivers Province was a recent formation and was designed to meet local standing complains of the people ———. It includes the two divisions of Brass and Degema both overwhelming Ijaw and Ogoni Division inhabited, almost entirely by a tribe of the same name. The former Rivers province also including 300, 000 Ibos of which 250,000 are in Ahoada Division and 45,000 Port Harcourt towns. Port Harcourt town is a town of recent growth and rapidly increasing importance. It is built on land originally belonging to outlaying branch of the Ibo tribe.”
Dr M.D. Amadi’s article sent on June 12, 2013, to Mr. Emeka Okala the Clearing House for None =Ikwerre Igbo for publication touched on several issues that do not relate to the subject matter in question. However, efforts shall be geared to addressing relevant topics of Ikwerrre being an integral part of Igbo land with very few exceptions. I shall also attach my earlier comments on this matter with the hope that the question thereto shall be addressed.
It is untrue that the hinterland Igbo calls Ikwerre people Di – ali and the Ikwerres call the Igbo Isuama. Di-ali is a southern Igbo word. It has several synonymous with Di-ala, and nwadiala. They all mean indigenous, free born, not a stranger, etc. An Ikwerre is di-ali in Ikwerre land; an Ngwa, Umuahia, and owerri are di- ala in their place or ethnic group respectively.
Isuoma means stranger, none indigenous. It is derogatorily used on migrant or seasonal laborers by Owerri, Ikwerre, Etche and Ngwa people. The Ngwa and Asa people interchange that word with Nwa-Ohuhu. “Mbara” is how Ikwerre people end their music. I have not heard Ikwerre people called that name. People may make fun of it. The use of those words whether derogatory or not abound. How about Nwanmoghi, for Ibibio, Anang, and Effik, Nyamiri, koboko and okoro for the Igbo. These are mere display of ethnocentrism. Their use is very insignificant to be linked to Ikwerre not being Igbo. You guys need to be well travelled in Nigeria and other parts of Igbo land in particular.
Your charge of Biafra not defending Port Harcourt is very disappointing and makes your reader wonder if you have ever read any material on wars let alone Nigeria-Biafra war. Did Enugu, Onitsha, Aba, Ikot-ekpene not over run by the federal troops. This is my first time of hearing that a country at war will purposely refuse to defend any part of her territory and in the case of Biafra, to not defend a city as viable as Port Harcourt. The first planned industrial layout in West Africa planned by the former Eastern Region government under the premiership Dr. M.I. Okpara.
I agree with Dr. M.D. Amadi that certain topic injected into this discussion has no relevance here. Post civil war abandoned property issue is one of them. The Ikwerres had no hand in the abandoned property scan of depriving people the sweet of their labour. Diobu people are by no standard backward. As early as 1927 Chief Wobo had dragged the Attorney General of Nigeria to court over the ownership of some parts of Port Harcourt. The case climbed the judicial ladder to the Privy Council. Diobu chiefs wouldn’t have remained passive while the hinterland Igbos who helped developed the city built houses without the permission of the owners of the land.
It should be noted that in the Southern areas it was considered abomination to sell land. In southern Igbo townships of Port Harcourt, Aba, and Owerri, there were two types of tenants; the customary and conventional tenants. The customary tenants were the first to acquire their property from the indigenous people after satisfying the traditional requirements prescribed by the local land tenure system. There were no deeds to be conveyed and no western survey system but the natives showing the tenant the boundaries of the land given to him or her. No documented evidence of the allocation of the property.
The second badge involved conveyance of deeds and are the conventional tenant who actually bought theirs when things had change. The government had acquired and surveyed the township. The custom of not selling land had been relaxed. This group surveyed and obtained the necessary documentation associated with real estate recordation and conveyance of deed. These two classes of tenants are still obtainable at Ogbor Hill, Ngwa Road and Over Rail/Ama Ogbonna areas of Aba Ngwa, and Owerri.
“The Rivers Province was a recent formation and was designed to meet local standing complains of the people ———. It includes the two divisions of Brass and Degema both overwhelming Ijaw and Ogoni Division inhabited, almost entirely by a tribe of the same name. The former Rivers province also including 300, 000 Ibos of which 250,000 are in Ahoada Division and 45,000 Port Harcourt towns. Port Harcourt town is a town of recent growth and rapidly increasing importance. It is built on land originally belonging to outlaying branch of the Ibo tribe.”
In Port Harcourt the abandoned property was a carefully planned and executed scheme by the Ijaw group who had wanted to get a foothold or a piece of Port Harcourt. They carefully targeted the customary tenants. Some of the Ijews themselves occupying the waterfronts are customary tenants of Diobu also. At the cessation of hostilities in 1970, they refused to vacate the building they occupied when the owners ran out of Port Harcourt for safety. They successfully got the government of the day to support them and demanded that the returnees present documents of purchase of their property to reclaim them. The customary tenants had no documents in the first place. Their host communities, landlords and neighbors know them, but, none of these were part of the requirements when they obtained their property from their landlords. The conventional tenants who had their documents reclaimed theirs. The question is where these property owners not paying taxes on their property? Why didn’t the Government on their end, use their tax records to determine who owns which property? The Ikwerres had no hand in Abandoned Property saga rather they distinguished themselves in handling the situation and used diplomacy to avert massacre, the Asaba style.
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