By Lucky Uto

The Urhobo people of Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State, has rejected the purported insinuations of Chiefs Victor Okumagba, Isaac Emifoniye and Sterling Egbosa, where they canvassed support for three wards for the Ijaws, suggesting that the Ijaws own more communities than the Itsekiris in the area.

Two notable leaders of the Urhobo people of Warri, including Chief West Adehor and Hon. Mark Ikpuri, who made the position known recently, dismissed the insinuations by Victor Okumagba, urging the Office of the National Security Adviser, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and in deed, the general public, to disregard the assertions of Victor Okumagba and his co-travelers and rely on verified data and genuine representation to maintain peace and fairness among ethnic groups in the area.

They argued the Ijaws neither have documented historical, nor legal claim to any community or ward within Warri South Council Area or Warri Urban other than the area known as Miller Waterside, which they purchased from the Agbassa-Warri Urhobo people, which they described as a case of a land owner and a tenant.

While recalling that there was an appeal by the late Pa E.K. Clark to the people of Agbassa-Urhobo to allow the Ijaws to jointly own a ward in the year 2001, which highlights the Ijaw’s lack of documentation or historical presence in Warri South, the Urhobo leaders maintained that the well-established position of Urhobo communities of Ogunu, Edjeba, Okere Urhobo, Kpokiti, Otowodo, Odion Urhobo, and Agbarha, while the Ijaws have no identifiable communities in the area further goes to show that they have no significant presence there.

They insisted that they remain the authentic indigenes of Warri South LGA, with reference to their longstanding contributions to the political, cultural and economic development of the area over many decades, while vehemently rejected claims that Ogbe-Ijoh and other riverine communities belong to the Ijaws, saying the recognition of ethnic groups within Nigerian LGAs often depends on historical settlements, legal documents, and political arrangements, all of which the Ijaws lack in the present circumstances.

In the same vein, another Urhobo patriot, Chief Mathias Olowu has also described the actions of Chief Okumagba and his associates as a “show of shame” and generational insult to the Urhobo people, declaring unequivocally that it was unacceptable to the Urhobo people for the Ijaws that have previously never produced a councilor in Warri South Local Government Area, to be allocated 3 wards.

Chief Olowu who challenged the Ijaws to provide evidence of any their person that has ever been buried in Warri, which he has never witnessed all his life as man that grew up in Warri, said there abounds countless Ancestral values and legal documents that confer land ownership rights on both the Urhobos and Itsekiris in Warri South.

He further clarified that the naming of monuments as in the case of Ogbe Ijaw Market does not imply that the Ijaws own that land, just as he noted that the existence of the likes of Hausa and Igbo Markets within the Warri metropolis does not automatically grant land ownership to the Hausas and Igbos who those markets were named after.

Chief Olowu who is a media consultant to the Urhobos of Warri, commended Chief Westham Adehor and Hon. Mark Ikpuri for their courageous defense of Urhobo interests, noting that their strong commitment to protecting the rights and heritage of the Urhobo people amid the raging disputes in Warri South was commendable.

The controversy has led to the Urhobo people has expressing disappointment in the activities of Victor Okumagba, John Eranvor; Isaac Emifoniye; and Stanley Agbosa, disowning them as a set of people who lacks the capacity to represent the Urhobo nation, as they on a voyage of pursuing selfish personal agenda..