Take the Benin–Asaba expressway toward the Delta border and you pass through Igbanke, a town of about 85,000 people in Orhionmwon Local Government Area of Edo State. Ask the people about their identity and the answer comes quickly and firmly that they are Igbo. More precisely, they are Ika-Igbo, kin to Agbor, Owa and Mbiri across the state line in Delta. Their dialect, their names and their institutions confirm this realities even though they are in Edo state. That gap between who a community says it is and where a map places it is the heart of Igbanke's story.
A Town Made of Six Kingdoms
Igbanke is not a single kingdom. It is six autonomous communities, each with its own king: Ake (Ake/Obiogba), Idumuodin, Igbontor (Igbontor/Idumuiru), Oligie, Omolua and Ottah. Oral tradition holds that they came together long before the slave trade era and eventually became known by a shared name. Their kings are called Obi or Eze, and community members say four of the six, Ake, Igbontor, Ottah and Omolua, use the two titles interchangeably. This is ordinary in Igboland, where obi refers to the central house of a homestead and, as a royal title, to the one who sits at the heart of the kingdom, while eze is the more common word for king. Outsiders who write about Igbanke often get this wrong. Some publications call their Kings "Enogie," an Edo title that Igbanke people do not use for their kings. A glance at how the town is described in print shows how easily an Igbo community can be written into someone else's institutions.
Igbanke Kings include HRH Solomon O. A. Igbinoba II of Ake, HRH Moses U. Omorodion of Igbontor, HRM Julius Isitor of Ottah, HRM Lucky Osunde of Oligie, HRM Blessing Otabor Egiebor of Idumuodin and H.R.H. Edobor Isaac Uwiafo of Omolua.
Many Roads to One Town
Where did the six Igbanke communities come from? There is no single answer, and the honest version of the history acknowledged their different migration pattern. Written accounts give each village its own route. Ake people are said to have come from Mbiri in Delta State. Ottah's founders are traced to Ata in present-day Anambra, around 1669. Idumuodin is described in one account as having come from Amahor, now in Igueben, in the days of Oba Ozolua of Benin. Other accounts link Igbontor, Oligie and part of Omolua to Benin or to mixed Esan, Ika and Benin migrants.
Those Benin-linked stories are where the argument begins. Many Igbanke people reject them, and they have reason to be wary. Stories that tie a community's origins to Benin are easily recycled to argue that it was never Igbo. Benin's armies and influence reached across the Ika and Anioma borderlands, including towns such as Agbor whose Igbo identity is not in question. A village can remember passing through Benin's orbit and still be Igbo. Outsiders have written many versions of Igbanke's origins, and several of them contradict what the villages themselves say. The elders' accounts, passed down through generations, deserve serious weight alongside the written record.
The Nri Visit
On August 18, 2026, Igbanke Akiko Uwa TV, a community media page, posted a photograph and video from a royal visit. HRM Blessing Otabor Egiebor JP, the Obi of Idumuodin, had travelled to Idu Eri Kingdom to see HRM Eze Chukwuemeka Eri, described as the 34th Eze Nri. Nri holds a special place in Igbo memory. Tradition treats it as one of the oldest sources of Igbo kingship and ritual authority, and Igbo communities across the region once looked to the Eze Nri for sanction. During the visit, the Obi of Idumuodin said Igbanke's people migrated from Nri.
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| Obi of Idumuodin Royal visit to Eze Nri |
Two things need saying plainly. The claim was the Obi's own, not a finding announced by the Eze Nri. And it is the Obi's account of his own village. Those who hold other traditions are not sure that all six communities trace to Nri, and what they agree on is that all six are of Igbo origin. Even so, the visit matters for Igbanke ethnic identity. It shows an Igbanke king travelling to an Igbo seat of ritual authority to speak about where his people come from. That is a powerful statement from a king and it deserves documentation.
A Name Said to Be Changed
Some in the community tell a story about the town's name. They say that before 1967 the place was known as Igbo-Akiri, and that Brigadier Samuel Ogbemudia, then military head of the Midwest, had it changed to Igbanke at the time of the civil war, so that it would sound more Benin and draw less suspicion. In recent times, movements have organized to restore the old name. When people want a name back, it tells you what they think was taken.
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When Edo State was created on August 27, 1991, Igbanke was placed inside it, separated from the Ika communities of Delta State to which the people say they belong. Today they are Igbo in culture and language but Edo in administration. That has consequences. Igbanke's leaders and writers describe roads and schools in poor condition and little representation in Edo's politics and planning. In a 2025 letter reported by The Sun, Igbanke's rulers and community groups said their people suffer discrimination and stereotyping from Edo-speaking communities because of their Ika identity. Ika-speaking leaders from nearby Iru made similar complaints.
Community members describe it in smaller, more personal terms. They say Igbo names such as Emeka, Ifeanyi and Chioma draw mockery, and that some people feel pushed to adopt Benin names to get a job or a school admission. Community members say such stories are common and that they pressure people to deny their Igbo identity. They also say Edo State institutions, including the palace, have played a part in this.
In 2024, a bill to create Anioma State out of the nine Igbo-speaking areas of Delta North came before the Senate. Igbanke's leaders wrote to ask to be included, and Igbanke representatives joined rallies in Asaba. Local social and cultural groups are pushing the idea of a boundary adjustment, which would move the state line and leave the land and people exactly where they are. The constitution makes this hard. A request must be backed by two-thirds of the area's representatives in the National Assembly, the State House of Assembly, the local government councils, and a referendum in the affected areas, followed by further approvals. Because Igbanke lies inside Orhionmwon, Edo's own institutions would have a say.
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Opposition to this dream is real. In December 2025, the Oba of Benin, as reported by Vanguard, told Edo State boundary committee that no part of Edo land would be ceded. The report I found did not name Igbanke, so it would be wrong to say it targeted the town. But it reveals two starting points. For Edo's leaders, a new line means losing territory. For Igbanke, whose land and six kingdoms existed before 1991, it means correcting a line drawn around them. Nobody is asking to take another community's land.
Igbanke is six autonomous communities. Its language is Igbo, its leaders have publicly asked to leave Edo State, and its institutions use the titles Obi and Eze. Its migration stories, the Nri tradition, the old name and its everyday experience of discrimination deserve to be told in the community's own voice, and they deserve more careful research than they have received. Perhaps that is the real lesson. When a community's account is written mostly by outsiders, it gets titles, names and origins wrong. Igbanke is asking, in effect, to be the author of its own history.
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