HOW ITSEKIRIS LAY CLAIM TO A WARRI CITY THEY DON'T OWN: THE CASE OF CHIEF E.A TEMILE
-By Zik Gbemre
We have repeatedly written many times that Itsekiri's Olu and his people should trace their roots to where they originated from.
Look around the geography of Warri Township. Nothing suggests Itsekiri people are aborigines of Warri Township or Warri City.
Few years ago, Precisely in October 2020, Chief E.A Temile, prominent Itsekiri Chief (Esama of Itsekiri Kingdom) passed and was buried on February 2021 in Okurode-Urhobo in Warri Township. Okurode-Urhobo is one of the communities of Agbarha-Ame Warri Kingdom.
The E.A Temile family paid the families of Okurode-Urhobo to allow their father to be buried in Okurode-Urhobo in Warri Township.
Chief E.A Temile and family hail from Benin River, no doubt about it. Temile, a supposed Chief of Itsekiri has no family compound in Warri Township.
The money used by the Temile family to pay Okurode-Urhobo families should have been used appropriately to develop their remote village in Benin River.
The Temiles want friends and business associates to believe they are from Warri City. Is this not self mockery? It is time for Olu of Itsekiri and people to stop dreaming and face reality rather than deceiving themselves. The Olu of Itsekiri's supposed traditional Palace is in Ode-Itsekiri. The Olu of Itsekiri should relocate to his supposed ancestral home village of Ode-Itsekiri.
The Olodi, Ighogbaudu and Oki families are aborigines of Okere-Urhobo Warri and their ancestral homes are there for every one to see if they visit Warri Township or WarriCity. Any visitor to Warri City should ask of Okumagba family compounds and you will see them.
Any visitor to Warri City should ask of Chief Sam Warri Essi Idesoh family compound and you will be shown. The Okandeji family compounds are in Okurode-Urhobo in Warri Township or Warri City. Etsaghara family compound are in Ogunu-Warri.
Ukoli family compounds are in Otovwodo Agbarha-Ame Warri Township. Itsekiri people are strangers in Warri who don't want to return to their villages in Benin River and most of their communities are going into extinction as we write this note because they don't want to live in them.
Many Itsekiri people are seen parabulating around Urhiapele (Sapele). The Okpe-Urhobos are the aborigines of Urhiapele(Sapele).
I am an Ughievwen- Urhobo man and I live in my hometown of Iwhrekan in Ughelli South LGA.
The Ibru family are from Agbarha-Otor and they own family compound there and live in them. The Michael and Cecelia Ibru University is located in Agbarha-Otor in Ughelli North LG. Cecilia Ibru lives in Agbarha-Otor, her husband hometown as Urhobo customs demand as we write this note because she was in active marriage at passing of Olorogun Michael Ibru, her husband.
James Ibori is a native of Oghara and he lives in Oghara. Ighoyota Amori is a native of Mosogar and he lives in Mosogar. Joe Omene lives in his hometown of Mosogar in Ethiope West LG. Gov Sheriff Oborevwori lives in Osubi Town,his hometown.
Chief Kenneth Gbagi before he passed lived in Oginibo his hometown in Ughelli South LG.
James Edewor and Johnson Ukueku before they died lived in Eku Town in Ethiope East LG. Chief Thomas Ogigba lived in Okpare Town before he passed.
David Dafinone lived in Urhiapele(Sapele) before he passed. Gamaliel Onosode identified and lived among his people in Ekiugbo Town in Ughelli North LG before he died.
It is shameful that Itsekiri people are shy to live in their villages in Benin River. Ijaws are living in their hometowns and developing them. Government Ekpemuepolo (Tompolo) lives in Gbaramatu and he is not shy to identify with his nativity of Gbaramatu.
Why can't the Itsekiri relocate to their home communities and develop them. Olu of Itsekiri should relocate to his supposed ancestral hometown of past Olus where they were crowned and performed their traditional rites. What is pursuing Olu of Itsekiri and people from their hometowns and home villages?
If you ask any Itsekiri person where is his/her hometown he/she will tell you he is from Warri but he doesn't have any family compound in Warri Township or Warri City except the land bought from Urhobo families of Agbarha-Ame and Okere-Urhobo in Warri Township.
The land of GRA in Warri Township is owned by the Ogbe-Ijoh and Agbarha-Ame people but Itsekiris have turned it to their hometown since they don't want to go to their hometowns and home villages in Benin River.
In few years time, E. A. Temile's family will lay false claim of ownership of land in Okurode-Urhobo in Warri Township because the land Chief E. A. Temile was buried in February 2021 was bought from Okurode-Urhobo families. E.A Temile was said to have passed on October 2020 but buried in Okurode-Urhobo in February 2021.
There is no tribe in Nigeria known as Iwere and there is no place called Iwere land in Nigeria. Are they not ashamed of preferring to be known as Iwere people instead of Itsekiri people. The Europeans referred to Itsekiri people as 'Jekri' and not 'Iwere'. The name Iwere is imagination of Olu of Itsekiri and people.
They have Yoruba land,Bini land,Esan land, Fulani land,Kambari land,Gbagyi land,Koro land,Ganagana land,Ebira land,Igala land,Idoma land,Igede land,Ogoni land, Ikwerre land,Urhobo land,Ezon land, Kalabari land,Ogbia land,Nembe land,Igbo land, Ndokwa land, Ibibio land, Efik land,Oron land, Berom land,Tarok land,Ngas land,Jukun land,Mambilla land,Kuteb land,Kanuri land,Kilba land,Marghi land, Nupe land,Tiv land, Isoko land, Hausa land. In the entire country only Itsekiri people have fake land location called Iwere land. Is there any tribe called Iwere tribe in Nigeria No?
It is only in Itsekiri we hear of a 'Potokri' (Portuguese) mulatto called Dom Domingos as Olu of Itsekiri. Is it not shameful that a 'Potokri' (Portuguese) mulatto,Dom Domingos became Olu of Itsekiri. Is Dom Domingos an Itsekiri name or 'Potokri' (Portuguese) name?
What pride for Itsekiri people to brag that a 'Potokri' (Portuguese) mulatto was their king? A foreign 'Potokri' (Portuguese) mulatto was their Olu to the extent they even named a secondary school in Edjeba Community of Agbarha-Ame Warri Kingdom in Warri City, Dom Domingos College.
What a shameful display of ignorance.Itsekiri with adulterated history and fake name of 'Iwere' will not stop packs of lies. The name Obafemi Awolowo changed in 1952 was Olu of Itsekiri and not Olu of 'Iwere'.
Itsekiri people know no shame at all hence they still promote packs of lies as history. Dom Domingos,:a 'Potokri' (Portuguese) mulatto is now their pride that he was their Olu of Itsekiri. Shame,shame,shame on Itsekiri Olu and people.
Itsekiri people who faked 'Iwere' as their tribe's name in recent times made another blunder in Okere owned by Okere-Urhobo in Warri City.
As noted by Dr Emmanuel Ojameruaye, Secretary, Urhobo Historical Society(UHS), "This is another fake history that raises more questions than answers. That supposed tree at Okere is not up to 200 years old.
"Let the originators of this fake story do carbon dating to prove that the tree was planted by the fictional Benin warrior (Ekpenede) or that his staff magically grew to become the tree. This was around 1497 and a tree from that period would certainly be different today if it survived!
"The warriors must have crossed Urhobo land to get to Okere and the story did not say that they found Itsekiris there, neither did it say it was a virgin land. If the story is true, they must have found Urhobos there since the Itsekiris were on the other side of the river, i.e., Ode-Itsekiri.
"The story says they could not cross to Ode Itsekiri and did not return to Benin. So they became Benin settlers at Okere -“small” according to them. How come did they abandon their Benin culture and became Itsekiris at Okere?
"The story says that Prince Iginuwa got to Ode-Itsekiri and became the first “Olu of Warri”. False! Ginuwa never stepped at Ode Itsekiri. He settled at Ijalla, far away from Ode Itsekiri, where he died and was buried, not as an Olu, but as a fugitive Benin prince and probably head of the Ijalla community.
"It was his two sons (Ijijen and Irame) who migrated to Okotomu, then inhabited by Ijaws. As the son of a Benin prince, Ijijen became a leader in the community and 'formed' the Itsekiri tribe " they now faked Iwere".
Even the Ode-Itsekiri which is now the Itsekiri ancestral home village was long inhabited by Ijaw aborigines.
Olu of Itsekiri and people should stop telling packs of lies as their history. They know where they came from and they should relocate to their communities in Benin River.
As noted by Andrew Edevbie, a scholar on Warri history and treaties, "A so called Itsekiri prince mullato whose mother was a Portuguese woman and baptized as Sebastian and later referred to as Olu Don Domingos.
Why would the Itsekiri for all their pride chose to refer to their king in foreign names in historical records?
If truly Sebastian is an Itsekiri, their traditions would require him to bear Itsekiri names and titles like other Itsekiri kings No Itsekiri woman or family would call their child let alone a prince by a foreign name that would be undermining sacredness of the Itsekiri monarchy"
Zik Gbemre
November 11, 2025
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