A Warri based legal practitioner, Pa. Magnus Atie who was a Clerical Officer at the Ministry of Justice and an interpreter at the Justice Omosun’s Commission of Inquiry set up to look into the petition of Olu Erejuwa 11 has stated that a curse was actually imposed by the monarchs.
Pa. Atie, made this disclosure in a statement in Warri in reaction to an exclusive interview granted to TELL by the Esongba of Benin Kingdom, Chief David Edebiri debunking Atuwatse III claims and pronouncement on his coronation day speech at Ode-Itsekiri.
He affirmed that the curse was imposed by the Late Olu of Warri, His Royal Majesty, Ogiame Erejuwa II and the Late Oba of Benin, His Royal Majesty, Oba Akenzua II on Warri Kingdom and the Nigeria Government during their reign.
Pa Atie stated that at the Commission’s sitting at Benin City he was the interpreter to those Itsekiri witnesses like the Late Ekpede Emiko, Moju Igbene, the king that never was and others who came to give evidence on the matter of the Warri Monarch dethronement and subsequent banishment to Ogbesse in Benin, saying that Chief David Edebiri was too young then to know or appreciate the enormity of what was at stake.
According to him, “Confronted with the ordeal of dethronement and exile, Erejuwa II cried to his Royal brother Oba Akenzua II and both discussed in their closet and took a decision and invoked a curse on Warri and Nigeria”.
He wondered how Chief Edebiri would expect the duo Royal brothers to divulge to him the content or outcome of their meeting even as he posited that David Edebiri was made a Chief only after the demise of the Late revered Oba Akenzua II.
But reacting to the Olu of Warri speech, Chief Edebiri told TELL exclusively that there was nothing like that because he was not aware of it.
“NO, Akenzua cannot do that; not my Oba. I was almost like a political aide to Oba Akenzua II, so there is nothing like that. I didn’t hear about it, and i don’t know about it. Even when Oba Erejuwa II came to Benin sometime in the 1940’s when the Benins were at loggerheads with their Oba to come and plead with Benin people, I was a small boy but I was in the palace. I didn’t hear about any curse”, Chief Edebiri asserted.
The chief noted if Erejuwa II cursed Nigeria he knew what Nigeria did to him and was banished to Ogbesse in Benin, saying that “it was not Nigeria that did it, it was their political issue… Oba Akenzua II has nothing to do with cursing Nigeria”, he maintained.
It would be recalled that the deposition was a political display of power play between the supporters of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo ‘s Action Group and gladiators of Azikiwe’s NCNC/NPC- led regional Government in 1964 before Erejuwa II was reinstated by the military Government of David Ejoor after some prominent Itsekiri leaders of the NCNC extraction were sacked at the Federal level by the Military administration of General Yakubu Gowon.
Olu Erejuwa 11 had petitioned the government on his unjust dethronement and banishment to Ogbesse.
Lt. Col. David Ejoor who was the then military governor of Mid-West Region had to set up the Justice Omosun’s Commission of Inquiry to look into his case and make appropriate recommendations.
It was based on the recommendations that Chief David Ejoor reinstated Erejuwa 11 to his throne and not as a favor to Itsekiri nation as being wrongly insinuated in some quarters.
According to Pa. Atie who stated further that the secretary of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry was one Mr. Gbegbaje maintained that the report of the Commission can be gotten from the Benin Archive, noting that a personality like the Arala of Benin Kingdom, Chief Osula would have added his voice of truth to the matter as a Chief under Oba Akenzua II.
