Endsars Endpolice Brutality Solidarity By Imasuen Amowie

 

PRESS STATEMENT DELIVERED BY IMASUEN AMOWIE IZODUWA 

COORDINATOR GENERAL, GREAT BENIN DESCENDANTS WORLDWIDE – (GBD) ON October 17TH, 2020.

 

Good morning to all the press men seated here for the press conference of this Association. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen from the academia, civil society organizations and from all walks of life, I say welcome most sincerely.

First, before we officially unveil the essence of this press conference, permit me to introduce this group to you all appropriately. Since the inception of this group we have identified over 45 ethnic nationalities or clans who have enthusiastically traced their roots to Benin, for purpose of time we will briefly mention few of them: Esans, Etsako, Owan, Ekpeye, Ogba, Epie Atisse, Iwurhuohna (Ikwerre), Ogbia, Igede (Benue), Ikare Ekiti, aborigines of Eko, aborigines of Itagbolu parts of Ika, Onitsha people, Oguta, Urhobo, Isoko, parts of Itsekiri people, Degema, as far as Guinea, Ghana, Togo and Benin Republic amongst several others. It is on this singular purpose we are prepared to unite all these Great Benin Descendants using history as an instrument to further the common ancestry shared by us all. Haven briefly established the mandate of our group we can now proceed to the business of today.

 

1). Exactly a year ago, we held a press conference where we completely obliterated the fallacies propagated these past years by the Yoruba’s through Ile-Ife relationship with the Benin people and we had hoped that the Ile-Ife will harken to our superior argument presented during the press briefing. Instead, today we are faced with another diabolic and dubious attitude of the Ile-Ife people. We have watched in recent times of how the Ooni of Ife has been surreptitiously trying to lay claim to our Benin heritage and it is only right to reject the dubiety and give the necessary historical facts to all who are seated here today. In the proverbial wisdom of our ancestors which simply state “Ugbe na de ghe, ei rruo mwan aro” translated as “a stone seen from afar cannot blind the seer” our fathers of some few generations ago had no documentation means to counter the Ile-Ife people’s propagation of lies in history and they allowed it subsist, aided by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) for over 70 years and the devastating effect is the bulk of the load which has been pushed down on our shoulders to carry. We are willing to carry it and fight it until victory is attained and not allow our future Benin generations to suffer the propaganda of history that has been carefully orchestrated by the Yorubas. Recently we saw His Imperial Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ile-Ife during the Olojo festival display our sacred cultural and traditional heritage emblem and insignia known by the old Benins as ADA and EBEN and we want to let the world know that the sacred Sword of Authority called Ada and it’s counterpart Eben, which is more of a ceremonial sword is the creation of one of our finest Kings, OGISO ERE, the 2nd king of Benin of which Oba Ewuare II Is the 71st king of Benin, who reigned 16A.D – 66A.D. The said ADA and EBEN were created approximately 2,000 years ago which is about 900 years before Ekaladerhan (Oduduwa) our self-exiled prince established the Ile-Ife stool which is currently occupied by the Ooni of Ile-Ife.

Consequently, only the Oba of Benin who is a direct descendant of Ogiso Ohuede and the occupant of the throne of Ogiso Igodo can grant the use to any of His royal family members as well as Great Benin sons and daughters and its descendants who have distinguished themselves in the services to Benin Kingdom and humanity at large. The Ooni is only free to continue to use our sacred ornaments in public festivals and ceremonies if he accepts his true role as the guardian of Ife stool created by our self-exiled Prince Ekaladerhan. One striking confession that we must take cognizance of is one made about 30 years ago by Ooni Sijuade who told press men shortly after coming out from seclusion during the Olojo festival, “that the founders of Ile-Ife had instructed that when the Ooni is to visit Benin he must slaughter five black cows” Thirty years later Ooni Adeyeye also quoted that “Ada and Eben are inheritance of Oduduwa” if one should correlate these two statements 30 years apart made during the same festival, one can simply say that “Ada and Eben are inheritance of Oduduwa who is the founder of Ile-Ife and whose origin is from Benin where Ooni must kill five black cows, before coming to Benin bearing in mind that the Ada and Eben being displayed were created by Ogiso Ere”. Oba gha to kpere. Ise.

 

2. The British colonization of our land through the fall of Great Benin in 1897 whereby our great Oba Ovoranmwen was deposed to Calabar has been so much of a bitter pill for some of us who are students of history to swallow and hence we must make appropriate corrections to appreciate the heroism of our great Oba and fighters. We want to use this medium to reiterate our pronouncements at the press conference held in January, 2019 by observing another ONE minute silence in honour of our fallen heroes of the British invasion in 1897… we are pleased to therefore announce to the public that 28TH of June every year should be set aside to celebrate our fallen heroes and heroines, that day is chosen because it was the day Chief Irabor the Ologbose of Benin Kingdom, a war veteran was dubiously executed by the British invaders and criminals about 121 years ago. A day where we can have a sober reflection of the great injustice done to our land by the marauding invaders called the British as an apparent drive to propel Benin to reclaim their place in the great world order like it was in the days of old where the world envied the great city called Benin. With nostalgia we recognize Benin City’s near perfect architectural magnificence, the glory of the Benin protective walls, the inner well-structured and planned city, the metaphoric ancient Nine gates, the street lighting which was first in the world, the brilliance of the Igun (bronze) casters, our military might, the political and traditional organizations mounted by the great overlord, the emperor himself – the Oba of Benin empire. Bearing all these in mind gives us so much pain as to where we were as a nation of excellence before the criminal minds of the British came to thwart all that our ancestors had achieved and bundled us in a place where we no longer can express ourselves and ideas to reinvigorate our ‘Beninness’ We can no longer continue to regret the past but we must henceforth begin to make changes that will direct us once again in the discovery of our true selves by blotting out all the British sordid legacies in our land, and one way is to completely remove all their names from major streets in Benin City.

 

 Plymouth – it is true that Plymouth has been renamed as Adesogbe but that name still echoes around the vicinity of our most sacred ground, the Ogbe Soil, the homestead of the Obas of Benin and we therefore call on the public that it should no longer be addresseØd as Plymouth but as Adesogbe.

 

 Forestry – renamed Ewaise however it is still popularly called Forestry hence we are reiterating that the public should desist from calling it Forestry but rather Ewaise road. That change must start from all of us seated here today.Ø

 

 James Watt – we are therefore proposing that the road should be re-named as Prince Kuoboyuwa, the very first Edaiken (crown prince) of Benin who never became an Oba in Benin kingdom and in his memory, his name once again should be exalted so that future generations will know and have fond memories of his greatness like we do.Ø

 Cooke road – we are also proposing that this should be replaced and called Arhuanran road, in memory of one of the finest and endowed son of our land, a prince, a warrior and great patriot of the Benin nation.Ø

 

 Other places like Akpakpava which is the Beninised version of its latin origin ‘Papa Via’ should be pardoned as it has our Benin ideology all over it, another example is Ukpasia which was named after Acher a Briton and we also Beninised it. As time progresses we will continue to look critically at major streets named not just after Europeans but other ethnic groups who presently have sworn to take our lands and history and we will now begin to deal with local community personalities that have pulverized our lands by allowing foreign names on streets of Benin. Only Benin and its descendants should have their names on our streets, let them call us tribalist, our land is ours and rules; ours.Ø

 

 Ekehuan Road – its original form is Eki – Ohuan (Ram Market). That road spells a lot in our history as it leads to the first known port station in West Africa, the Ughoton port which commanded beehive of market activities in the past. It was the gate way of the Edo people to the outside world, it was where our Royal and Imperial Majesty Oba Ovonramwen passed through when he was deported to Calabar. It is theØ journey route of our distinguished self-exiled Prince Ikaladerhan before he went to establish a throne in Ile-Ife, a place that is believed to be the origin of the cluster of independent vassal states of Benin empire that later became known as Yoruba people. The Ekehuan road is too important to be called so trivially hence we propose a more endearing name “IKALADERHAN” Road to reflect the greatness and history perspective of that road and also to bring a closer memory to how our Prince established another nation (Yoruba). All these can only be possible if we begin to see it the way it should be. Oba gha to kpere. Ise.

 

3. AGHADAGHADA SUMMIT: It is our annual event that brings all the Benin descendants all over the world together and it is expected to hold 22nd of July every year but because of the corona virus pandemic, it has now been officially shifted to Saturday, 12th of December 2020. We are calling on all great Benin descendants to take this year’s Aghadaghada summit serious by participating and supporting the success of the program. Wa hia ruese ivbie Edo N’Uzomo. All great Benin descendants must come together and chart a common goal for themselves as one of the cardinals requirements in repositioning the Great Benin nation once again. Oba gha to kpere. Ise.

 

CONCLUSION

 

The consequence of our silence has cost us a great deal of an historical gap that must be rectified by our present generation, we are not blind to the hatred of our neighbors because they envy the legacies of our ancestors, they have questioned the genuiness of our history, they are poised in rewriting an already established fact, some of our descendants’ now fro lick with our historical adversaries, we therefore appeal to the conscience and to the ancestral bond that exist between all Great Benin Descendants for them to shield their swords as we will continually educate the Edo South part of Great Benin, that all Great Benin are same and equal where ever they are, this is what we stand for and this is what we shall continue to preach, the legacy of the old rolled all back to the future. Our collective decisions to propagate history is a tool to harmonize unity amongst all Great Benins we therefore call on all our brothers and sisters most especially the Esan people to stand by us just like in the days of old to quell the deceptive ploys of some ethnic groups to cause disunity amongst us. We discovered recently that there is also a bad blood between our Itsekiri brothers and us; the Benins, we want to reiterate our drive for unity and for both parties to rather dwell in what we shared in the time past and allow history to be the driving force in putting some of these bad bloods amongst us to rest, we therefore propose a public historical intellectual exchange as a modus operandi in bringing a lasting solution to the Itsekiri ownership claim of Ologbo dukedom or community.

 

Oba gha to kpere. Ise. Lastly we join all Nigerians all over the world to say ENDSARS, ENDPOLICE BRUTALITY AND LETS CREATE A BETTER COUNTRY BECAUSE WE CAN DO BETTER.

 

God bless all Great Benin Descendants

God bless the Great Benin Nation that will be reborn

Umogun gha to kpere. Ise