EDO-ONDO-DELTA BOUNDARY IS WRONGLY ADJUSTED TO THE SEA
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THE MONUMENTAL FRAUD OF EDO - DELTA - ONDO BOUNDRY THAT MUST BE CORRECTED NOW!!!!!!
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"In 1977, the Obasanjo administration set up the Justice Mamman Nasir Boundary Commission and, following its report, the boundaries of some states were changed. Part of Western Ijaw went to Rivers State, part of Bendel went to Ondo; part of Rivers went to Cross Rivers and part of Imo went to Rivers.
Because of this, some oil wells changed hands. There was an oil well in Rivers very close to Imo and I was asked to demarcate where the oil well was actually located. After the exercise, it was found that the oil well was in Rivers.
Moreover, because parts of Bendel had gone to Ondo, there were five oil wells very close to the boundary. Initially, the Ondo people wanted the royalty to be shared 50-50 because they were very close to the boundary between both states.
In 1981, a Yoruba man (Adebekun), who was Director of Survey, wrote to the Ministry of Finance on the issue and, after charting, it was found that the oil wells were in Bendel State.
Another Yoruba man wrote to the Ministry of Finance that the Yoruba would not take this. He went to Lagos, met with the Director of Survey and reported that a Benin man was behind the charting. Then my Director said no, he charted it. In 1984, Bamidele Otiko became the military governor of Ondo State and came to Lagos to meet my Director. At the meeting, my Director told Otiko he was responsible for the charting."
-- DETAILS http://ihuanedo.ning.com/
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POSITION OF BENIN
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By Captain Alain Boisragon
THE Benin lies somewhere between the latitudes of 5º to 6º N. and the longitudes 5º to 6" E. In olden days it used to reach right down to the coast-line.
First of all there is Benin City and the Benin, then the Benin River, near the mouth of which is what is called New Benin, consisting of the different factories and the old Vice-Consulate House, now only used as a Custom and Post office, and finally what is known as the Benin District, under a Vice-Consul, which comprises all the country around and between Sapele and Warri.
To take the river first, which is only called the Benin River for about fifty miles, as above Sapele, which is about that distance from the sea, two smaller streams join, one of which flows from the north, being called the Jamieson, and the other from the east, the Ethiope. The Jamieson is navigable for steam launches for about thirty miles to a place called Sapobah; from there canoes can get up farther, as the river becomes but a small stream too narrow for any navigation, and overgrown with big forest trees.
The Ethiope comes into Sapele from the east, and was the south-east boundary of the Benin. On the left bank are another tribe called the Sobos (Urhobo), Sapele has now become the headquarters of the government and trade of the Benin River, the Consulate and several factories having been moved there. It is a lovely place to look at, as there is a magnificent background of huge forest trees to all the different clearings, while on the other bank is one dense mass of foliage, the forest reaching right down to the water-side.
Here, too, the water begins to become beautifully clear, and is studded every here and there with masses of water-lilies and small green islands made of water plants just peeping above the surface of the water. However lovely to look at, it is not quite so pleasant to live in, being, like all this part of West Africa, more or less unhealthy.
To return to Sapele : about eight miles below is Warrigi, where the main column of the Naval Brigade was concentrated before the advance on Benin City. Seven miles north from Warrigi is Ciri on the Ilogi Creek, where the Niger Coast Protectorate troops were, and close to Ilogbo, a town on the other bank, and which was first attacked on the advance. The Ilogi Creek here was the southern boundary of the Benin, and running up first east and then northwards comes from close to Benin City, and was the creek from which the inhabitants got their water. From Ciri it runs in a south-westerly direction, and eventually joins the Benin River about twenty-five miles lower down from Sapele.
As one goes down the Benin River all the forest land and high banks gradually disappear, and the melancholy mangrove takes the place of everything. Some twenty miles from the sea is the entrance to what is called the Forcados or Nanna’s Creek, the latter after Nanna, who until 1894, when he was smashed up and his town of Brohoemi burnt by a combined force of Naval Brigade and Niger Coast Protectorate Force, under Admiral Sir Frederick Bedford, K.C.B., was the head Jakri chief of the Benin River. This Forcados Creek is the waterway for steamers coming from the Forcados River and the sea, the bar of the Benin River being too shallow to let anything but small steamers come across it. Opposite the entrance to the Forcados Creek, which is on the left bank of the Benin River, is the entrance to the Gwatto Creek.
Farther down the river, on the same side as the Gwatto Creek, i.e. the right bank of the river, are two big creeks called respectively Adabrassi and Lagos Creeks, and amongst many others one important small one leading to Brohoemi, the town of Nanna, the chief mentioned above, and, as he thought, the only way of arriving at his town, surrounded by swamps as it was, — in fact, it was actually built on a swamp. Consequently, this creek was defended by a battery of big guns mounted behind a hidden stockade, most artistically screened so as not to be seen from the creek.
This battery fired on H.M.S. Alecto’s steam pinnace, which was
reconnoitring up the creek, and very nearly sank her, the pinnace only reaching the Alecto in a sinking condition, and with everyone on board her, some six or seven, with the exception of her commander. Captain J. Heugh, badly wounded. Amongst these was Major Crawford, who was killed in the last fatal expedition to Benin City. Unfortunately for Nanna, the force, when they eventually attacked Brohoemi, waded through the swamp, generally waist-deep in mud, and attacked from the side Nanna least expected, and on which he had got but few of his guns trained.
To return to the Benin River: on the left bank, nearly opposite the entrance to the Lagos Creek, is the Deli Creek, the route that steam launches take going to the Forcados River, but which is too narrow for steamers. Passing the Lagos Creek, and on the same bank, we come very soon to the factories and the old Vice-Consulate, which are about six miles from the mouth of the river, and which are called, as I have said, New Benin.
The Government House is only a Customs and Post-office station, part of the house and most of the outbuildings having been removed to Sapele; while, of the many factories that there used to be here, only four remain used, the rest being represented by a few remains, as trade at the mouth of the river has year by year sunk to something very small.
On the opposite side of the river to New Benin, and some way from the river bank up a creek, is the town of Baterri, where Chief Dore, the head chief of the river since Nanna's downfall, lives. It is built on one of the patches of solid ground to be found hereabouts, for the whole country near the coast-line is simply a network of creeks and mangrove swamp, any villages that there are being hidden some distance away from the banks of the river, or creek, and the only entrance to which is usually some insignificant-looking little creek. It is melancholy work sometimes steering through these creeks from station to station in a launch, going hours together without seeing a sign of a human being.
For many years past the way reaching Benin City was by Gwatto, which is about forty-five miles up the Gwatto Creek from its entrance into the Benin River. There the Gwatto Creek is about three-quarters of a mile wide, and surrounded by mangrove, but gradually one leaves that behind as the creek narrows, and when one gets to the Benin Country at Gwatto, or at Gele Gele, which is two or three miles nearer, one reaches once more the high banks, good solid ground, and forest country. At Gwatto the creek is about forty or fifty yards wide, and comes down from the northwards, narrowing and narrowing the farther one gets up, till it dwindles away from the source, wherever that may be.
The Gwatto Creek is called the western boundary of the Benin Kingdom. The boundaries on the north and east I do not know, except that somewhere to the north are a tribe called Mahins, who were supposed to be enemies of the Benins, but toward the north-east, in which direction the King must have fled, the country was open to him, being part of the possessions of the Benin Kingdom.
SOURCE: http://ihuanedo.ning.com/
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Benin National Congress
Press release- Oben oil and gas rich community of Edo State as a Delta State community in its Wednesday's article- Benin National Congress calls for correction, 22nd June 2011.
The attention of the Benin National Congress (Edo Socio-Cultural Organization) has been drawn to an oil and Gas article centered on the Oben gas-to-power project, and published at the front page of Guardian Newspaper of Wednesday 22nd June 2011.
We sincerely believed that the aim of the publication was to draw federal government; and other stakeholders to the 'abandoned' gas-to-power project, with a view to revitalizing same and bringing the dream to limelight. However, at the first paragraph, the Benin National Congress and concerned stakeholders observed that 'OBEN' was referred or portrayed as a community in Delta State; whereas, the said community is part and parcel of Orhiomwon Local Government Area of Edo State.
We would had not bothered to raise any issue about the commission or omission, but, considering the wisdom in Karl Marx's indelible assertion "to leave an error uncorrected, is to encourage intellectual immorality" we considered it appropriate to raise a formal observation to the Board of editors or the essayist or editorof Guardian Newspapers because, in the light of clandestine activities by our hitherto neighbors to appropriate Benin lands, Oil and Gas resources and plantations to themselves, this 'mistake' could be a golden opportunity for anti Benin elements to demand for our natural resources and lands.
In fact, to undermine our people, flow-stations are deliberately built outside or far from the source of oil wells in Benin lands, so that offshore benefits can accrue to our neighboring states; as we speak, there are plans by some powerful political elites of Delta State origin to appropriate the oil and gas potentials of Evbohighae-Ugbeka clan, in Oriomwon Local Government Area.
Pre-colonially, there are documented evidence attributing to very large size of the ancient Benin territories; even after the colonial conquest, but, oppressive and anti-Benin opportunists who found themselves at the corridors of power, especially at the Presidency, and acting in connivance with some fifth columnists within Benin kingdom have done everything possible to appropriate the oil-rich Bight of Benin to their native communities; including other forms of political vindictiveness.
As a non-political organization, we wish to make clear that these anti-ethnic tendencies will definitely prop-up militant uprisings by the Binis because, we have been pushed to walls for too long, and our hospitality has for long been taken for granted. Igt is sad the the Lucky Igbinedion Administration and the State House of Assembly have continued to gloss over the appropriation of Edo Oil Wells and territorial lands, apparently because they are not direct descendants from the affected communities. The time to fight is very near, unless stakeholders and Lawmakers urgently reviews the trends.
We watch closely.
Dr. David Ekomwenrenren.
Cc; The Comrade Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole
The Speaker of Edo State House of Assembly
All Elected National and State Assemblies members from Edo State
The Oba of Benin, Oba Erediauwa CFR
Nigerian Union of Journalists, Edo State.
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