The leadership of Kantu (also known as Ikantu) Community in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State has firmly reaffirmed its ancestral identity as part of the Ijaw ethnic nationality, rejecting claims linking the community to the Itsekiri nation.
Addressing a press conference at the Kantu Town Hall on Friday, June 06, 2025, the community’s traditional and civic leaders emphasized their deep-rooted Ijaw heritage, tracing their origins back to the 11th century.
Pa. Edwin Atikan Atemubagha, the Ama-Okosuwei (traditional head) of Kantu, led the declaration, asserted that the community’s founder, Oweizibiri, was a full-blooded Ijaw man from Oporoza, the ancestral seat of the Gbaramatu Kingdom.
“No historical distortion will erase the Ijaw identity of our people,” Pa. Atemubagha stated, reinforcing the community’s commitment to preserving its cultural and historical integrity.
While acknowledging that intermarriages between Oweizibiri’s descendants and Itsekiri women over the generations have influenced the community’s language, the leadership insisted that such linguistic shifts do not equate to an ethnic transformation.
“Language adoption due to environmental factors is not a transformation of heritage,” said Mr. Windfree Atemubaghan, Chairman of Kantu Community. “Our bloodline, origin, and allegiance remain Ijaw.”
The community leadership condemned what it described as attempts by certain individuals to reclassify Kantu as an Itsekiri settlement, warning that such actions risk igniting unnecessary tensions and undermining peace within the Gbaramatu Kingdom and the wider Ijaw nation.
Kantu reaffirmed its loyalty to His Royal Majesty, Oboro Gbaraun II, Aketekpe, Agadagba, the Pere of Gbaramatu Kingdom.
The community leaders, however, called for harmony among ethnic nationalities in the Niger Delta, stating unequivocally: “Kantu was never, and will never be, part of the Itsekiri ethnic group. We stand firmly as Ijaw.”
