Gbaramatu Kingdom Will not Cede any Land to Any Group or Persons, Gbenekama vows
By Ezekiel Kagbala
The Fiyewei (Spokesman) of the ancient Gbaramatu Kingdom in the Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State, Chief Dr. Godspower Gbenekama has vowed that Gbaramatu Kingdom will not cede any land to any group or persons, whatever the circumstances.
Gbenekama made the declaration over the weekend while addressing the leaders and people of the riverine Ijaghala community, also known as Zou-Ala Uba community, in the Warri South-West LGA, who had converged in the community's town hall to affirm the community's ancestral affinity with the Ijaw Gbaramatu kingdom.
At the carnival-like event, the residents in their hundreds, comprising elders, youths and women, all gaily dressed in traditional attires, had besieged the town hall, where they formally denounced what they called "the age-long misrepresentation of Ijaghala community as an Ugborodo Community instead of a Community that originated from Gbaramatu Kingdom".
They urged the general public, local, state, and federal governments and the international community to take notice of their affirmation "that Ijaghala (Zou-Ala Uba) community having an ancestral lineage with Gbaramatu kingdom in Warri South West Local Government Area, Delta State and will continue to affirm and remain in the traditional institution of Gbaramatu kingdom".
The residents reeled out the historical origin of Ijaghala community to their ancestor who founded it at about the 11th century noting that the community "used to be a fishing and palm wine tapping camp of Gbaramatu forebears before Egbegha was born and prior to the existence of Ugborodo".
The Ijaghala people while declaring that they are Ijaws under Gbaramatu Kingdom, under the Kingship of HRM Oboro Gbaraun II JP Aketekpe Agadagba, the Pere of Gbaramatu Kingdom also affirmed that they have decided to go back to their father, Egbegha, the founder of Zou-Ala Uba who married an Itsekiri woman.
They then beckoned on the entire Gbaramatu Kingdom to witness the groundbreaking declaration inside the Egbegha Town Hall, close to Egbegha primary school where
Chief Dr. Gbenekama, the Spokesperson of the Kingdom formally welcomed them back home, pronouncing that henceforth, they will now enjoy the blessings that flows from Gbaramtu Kingdom.
Addressing the gathering, Gbenekama expressed anger that Itsekiris have been laying claims to Ijaw lands unduly after corrupting the real names of Ijaw communities citing, for example, Zou-Ala Uba corrupted to Ijaghala.
Gbenekama stated that while Gbaramatu Kingdom did not claim Ijaghala, the people traced their ancestral origin themselves "and it would be wrong for Gbaramatu Kingdom not to accept their own". He assured them of love, care and protection.
He pointedly accused the Itsekiri of disturbing the peace in the Niger Delta out of what he tagged their proud disposition and sarcastically remarked that the Oba of Benin should take back his people.
Gbenekama declared, "It is unacceptable for the Itsekiri people to claim our lands.
"Edo people come and take your people! Oba of Benin, come and take your people!"
Commenting further on the claims by the Itsekiri people, Gbenekama said, "In the African tradition, it is the man who marries the woman to his home to procreate, just as Egbegha, the founder of Zou-Ala Uba did by marrying an Itsekiri woman, with the children speaking their mother's dialect.
"Inter marriage made some of them to speak other language, and then you think, because they speak the language you want to assimilate them. It's funny that every claim of land by the Itsekiri's is always by court".
While warning that the Gbaranatu kingdom will not cede any land in the kingdom to any group or persons, the Fiyewei noted that those Itsekiri people laying claims to Ijaghala community are not descendants of Egbegha but are settlers who accompanied the children of the founder.
"I want to ask, how do the Fulani got Emirs all over Hausa land? It is through Jihadist conquest. Assuming, without conceding, if they were staying along this place and the Ijaw people conquered them, then we have conquered them, the land belong to the Ijaw people.
"The fact is, Ijaws are one of the oldest tribes in Nigeria. Google it. So, how does somebody, who said he came from Benin in the 14th century, a splinter.
"Edo people, come and take your people. The people you sent away, because of evil deeds are causing problems in our land. So, Oba of Benin come and take your people!".
Speaking further, Gbenekama stated that the ownership of Zou-Ala Uba has been earlier affirmed by a publication made by the elders of the community in the Vanguard Newspaper, Page 20 of November 2, 2008, laying to rest any doubt about the Gbaramatu community.
He said that the Ijaw people of Gbaramatu Kingdom are ready to accommodate those who are ready to stay peacefully with them, but that nobody can change their history, while he also labeled those who claim that the Gbaramatu people are customary tenants as "customary slaves".
FocalPoint can authoritatively report that the aftermath of the press conference called by the people of Ijaghala (Zou-Ala Uba) Community on Friday, June 13, 2025, was a clear affirmation that the people will no longer accept the misrepresentation that has wrongly placed them under Itsekiri for far too long and also, the community is not part of Ugborodo community but Gbaramatu Kingdom.
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