Stop Manipulating Yoruba History, Group Blasts Igbo Writers

Atunto, a Yoruba socio-cultural organisation of prominent Yoruba stakeholders worldwide, has condemned in strong terms the recent alleged falsely peddled narrative by some writers that the Igbos had at some points in history occupied Ile-Ife, the well-known ancestral home land of the Yoruba.

In a statement issued by its joint Chairmen, Chief Banji Ayiloge (Diaspora), and Dr Oluwatoyin Atte (Homeland) on Thursday, the group said that the Igbos were never in history in any form or shape related to, or occupied any part of Yoruba land.

“We want to state without any equivocation that this latest claim is false, and can only be an attempt to appropriate the prestige and culture of Yoruba people through a revisionist history to which Igbo people of the South East of Nigeria have been mindlessly and relentlessly engaged in,” the statement read.

Reacting to a false Igbo claim through a self-published publication on Amazon, the Yoruba group debunked the falsehood in the book in order to discourage others with a similar mindset from peddling similar falsehoods about the famed Yoruba ancestral home.

The group noted that a statement by the Ooni of Ife, Arole Adeyeye Ogunwusi, rightly connecting Ile-Ife to Ugbo Kingdom in Ondo State, was misconstrued by some people, including the Obi of Onitsha, to give impetus to the ridiculous Igbo claim to Ife.

“Oba Obateru Akinruntan of Ugbo town is a living custodian of the history and the tradition of his people and has never at any time acknowledged any relationship with the Ibo people, but has strenuously proclaimed Ile-Ife as the source of the Ugbo people as the original inhabitants of Ile-Ife.

“Moremi Ajasoro has been prominently featured in the Ooni and Oba Akinruntan discussion.

“We condemn the false claim of some ill-conceived Ibo people that any town that has “Igbo” as part of its name belongs to Ibo people, such as Igbo Ora, Igbosere, Oke Igbo, Ijebu Igbo, Igbomina, etc.

“Indeed, all right-thinking people know “Igbo” in Yoruba means forest and not Igbo, a recent adoption by the people traditionally referred to as Ibos until very recently.

“It is interesting to note that the use of the name Igbo to describe the people of the South East is a recent phenomenon.

"For an extended period, the people of the South East were known as “Igbo” as in the Ibo Descendant Union founded by Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe.

“Suppose the recent adoption of Igbo as a reference to the Igbos is designed to enable them to appropriate Yoruba towns, it has failed as those towns’ history spanned many centuries,” the group said.

According to the group, some ethnic groups in Nigeria are willing to appropriate the esteemed culture, history, and land of the Yoruba and called on people to stop desecrating Yoruba culture and its well-documented history.

The group noted that Igbo people have also claimed the entire South-South as part of their land to the consternation of Rivers and Delta people, and have for many years claimed that they were Jewish people from the Middle East. That claim has been refuted by the Israelis using DNA.

“It is bizarre that they were claiming to be everywhere but they are in their little corner in the Southeast," the group noted.

Atunto then urged Igbo people to desist from insulting and provoking Yoruba people by engaging in infantile fabrications of history.