Ugbos, not Igbos are first settlers in Ife Kingdom — Monarch clarifies

The Olugbo of Ugbo land in Ondo State, Oba Dr Frederick Akinruntan, has asserted that the Ugbos, not the Igbos, were the original settlers of the ancient Ife Kingdom, countering claims made in some contemporary historical accounts.

Oba Akinruntan made the clarification in a statement issued on Wednesday by his Chief Press Secretary, Prince Ademibo Akingboye, where he cautioned against what he described as the false narration of Ile-Ife’s history.

He warned that there was a growing attempt to institutionalise historical inaccuracies through books, noting that “heresy” must be addressed before it is widely accepted as fact.

According to the monarch, some books argue without credible evidence that the Yoruba monarchy was built upon Igbo spiritual systems, and that Oduduwa overthrew an existing peaceful Igbo civilisation, thereby making modern Ife a hybrid of stolen Ugbo identity.

Quoting two notable Nigerian historians, Prof Anthony Asiwaju and Prof Isola Olomola, Oba Akinruntan maintained that the earliest inhabitants of the Ife region were Ugbos, not Igbos, as suggested in the contested narratives.

“Interestingly, highly respected historians of Igbo extraction, such as Professors Kenneth Dike, Adiele Afigbo, Elizabeth Isichei, etc, who have carried out our ground-breaking and monumental works on Igbo history and culture, never insinuated that the Igbos founded Ile-Ife,” the statement reads.

“Perhaps, these newly emergent ‘jankara’ historians believe that they parade better credentials that qualify them to write so authoritatively on the history of the Igbo than the afore-mentioned eminent and highly celebrated Ugbo Professors of History.”

Oba Akinruntan further explained that prior to the emergence of Oduduwa, the Ife Kingdom was known as Ugbomokun, its central market was Ugbo Akira, and the royal palace bore the name Ule Ugbo. 

He added that the Ifa corpus makes reference to the rule of the Olugbo at Ife in the phrase ‘kutukutu oba ugbo, osangangan obamakin’, which he interpreted to mean “the king of Ugbo presided in the beginning, Obamakin came later.”

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He reinforced this stance by citing the conclusions of Professors Asiwaju and Olomola, who reportedly dismissed the claims that the pre-Oduduwa Ugbo settlers were the Igbos of eastern Nigeria, as claimed in the Ikedu tradition.

The monarch warned that if the “misleading falsehoods” were not addressed promptly, they could distort the historical and spiritual significance of Ile-Ife as the cradle of Yoruba civilisation. 

He also noted that such narratives risk undermining the central role of the Ugbo people in the history of pre-Oduduwa Ife and Yoruba heritage at large.

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