Initially, the extent of Agbor Kingdom embraced all the villages of the Ika-speaking people with camps of settlement in its region. Agbor was assumed to lie between the Niger River on the Eastwards and the Kingdom of Benin on the Westwards. Ika was not known then.
After the Bini expedition of 1897, strangers from coastal towns chiefly Itsekiri, Aboh, Asaba, Bonny, Yoruba, etc. began to enter Agbor domain as traders and missionaries.
The Christians preached and presented the image of Jesus Christ. The Roman Catholic Mission (R.C.M) and the Church Missionary Society (C.M.S) built churches at Ime-Obi near the Obi’s Palace and at Ozarra about 1902 and 1908 respectively. Then followed the British Patrol Officers escorted by Bini Chief to Agbor.
By this way, the people of Agbor began to change drastically. In 1901, Agbor became the administrative station under the Commissioner, Mr. O.S. Crewe Reads. He controlled most important towns from Agbor. These were Asaba, Ukwuani, Ishan and Kukuruku (Auchi). In the frontage of the Obi of Agbor’s Palace, office, school, telegraph office and Native Court were opened. Later on, Prisons, Hospital, Soldier Barracks, Police and Judicial were opened in 1906 before the British Commissioner was murdered at Owa while in official tour.
This resulted in Crewe Reads War (Agha Iredi) in which the British Soldiers came to attack Owa. Owa people resisted the formidable British army for 55 days. Although Owa was conquered by the British, this was in fact, a pyrrhic victory for no less than twelve of the invading army were killed and 193 seriously wounded. With British tricks and antics, some Owa prominent Chiefs as well as some able-bodied men were carried into exile where most of them died. Also, Obi Igboba of Owa was incarcerated in Warri, where he joined his ancestors at a very ripe age. As a result of the war, all the Bini Chiefs that came with the British Patrol ran away and some unfortunate ones were massacred. In 1908, the Governor, Sir Walter Egerton, touring on his bicycle from Lagos to Calabar noted in his diary that he was glad to get clear of Agbor where the attitude of the natives was hostile and turbulent.
In 1912, the District Native Court and Council Hall were built with two faces tower clocks for the Chiefs from Asaba, Auchi, Ukwuani and other villages to attend. The telegraph line Agbor-Ubiaja was constructed after 1906, but the line from Lagos to Asaba before 1904. In 1914, the First World War broke out. Agbor District people provided carries who were sent to Cameroun and East Africa by the British Officer at Agbor.
Around 1915, some important men were appointed as Warrant Chiefs for Court and Council – Ajaeh, Agbaeh, Osahon, Ajuebon, Atigo, Elweu, Oshodi, Egim, Ordia, Odabu, Ojisi, Nmoka, Agbasogun, Ekpenike, Akpara, Ozomor, Alaza Emuhu, Eleme Eze Aki, Eze Akumazi, Eze Umunede, Eze Orta, Eze Olije, Eze Awu, Eze Ute-Okpu, Eze Orbio, Eze Mbiri, Eze Igbodo, Iyeke, Eze Ogan; and Council of Chiefs was created to accommodate those of Asaba, Ogwashi-Uku, Issele-Uku, Ubulu-Uku, Ebomkpa, Ishan and Ukwuani. The Native Courts were built at Agbor, Igbanke and Igbodo. Eze Agbor was the President of the Court and Council.
In 1916, the people of Igbanke pledged their loyalty to Chief Osula leadership who annexed them to Benin administration. Ogan, Orta, Olije followed suit in quitting from Agbor their native home. Later on, Ubiaja and Ukwuani District Offices were opened. This changed the power and sphere of Agbor influence.
In 1918, the Agbor District Office was burnt by unknown person and old records were damaged. This event is regrettable as Agbor historians would have no records of the past to refer.
In 1951, Agbor District Constitution changed to Ika District Council and each village became known as clan instead of village, whereas in a District, there should be no two kings of equal status in which instance the clan heads rotated the post of presidency in the District Council. However, Eze Agbor and his people rejected the constitution on the ground that Eze Agbor cannot rotate seat with Chiefs under his suzerainty and considered it as an eccentric procedure by petitioning the Government, which after a while was cancelled. The Obi of Abavo hesitated but said he would at any time be glad to be a president of the Ika Council even when the procedure is contrary to custom. Thus, the village Chiefs of the District declined to pay homage to Eze Agbor and no one asked them for anything for fear of British interference. Such act of the government in its policy brought down the glory that was of Eze Agbor.
This sophisticated and divisive arrangement was designed to forestall the Obi of Agbor’s authority in Ika. HRH Obika no longer enjoyed the confidence of the former village heads who styled themselves ‘Obi’ instead of Eze or Ayuwe (Chief). Obika stoutly refused to listen to the unfair policy and would not attend Council in which his subordinates would meek him as equals.
Before the murder of the District Commissioner in 1906, the Native Court was opened in the frontage of the Obi of Agbor’s Palace. The Court was later transferred to the present site of the government station in 1912. The Chiefs from Agbor, Ukwuani, Ishan, Kukuraku districts were members until 1918 when Court halls were built at Owa, Awu, Umunede, Igbodo, Akumazi, Otolokpo Ute-Okpu, Mbiri, Emuhu and that of Agbor having jurisdiction over all with its grade “B” power.
Thus, each village had a court of limited “D” grade from which an appeal would lie to the Clan Court. The personnel of the court were the same as that of the village councils; that is, the village head as president with Okwa Okukpo and the Okwa Ebeobor (Okwa-son-Okwa) and the Ilotu or Ihaime as Court Officers.
There was a change in the Court system; at first Court clerk and the judges were clan heads with Chiefs. The administrator supervised the records of cases and affairs. Later, the appointment of magistrates and lawyers was made to advocate the judiciary in Agbor as other urban towns have undergone changes through the years.
Chief Dr. Onyekpeze F.A. (JP)
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