Ooni Says Ndigbo Migrated From Ile Ife to South East Region

The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi has said that Ndigbo migrated from the ancient city of Ile Ife, to their present abode in the South East Region.

According to the monarch, there is Ile-Igbo in his Ife palace, which had been existing for many decades.

The Ooni of Ife, made the revelation while addressing newsmen on Saturday during the press conference on the theme: “international conference on Ile-Ife and Yoruba civilization: the nexus between tradition and modernity”, held at his palace in Ile-Ife.

The monarch also said that Ethiopians were the sons and daughters of Oramiya in Okerewe and Eredum ruling house in Ile Ife.

Also, the Ooni of Ife said Kenyans, Ugandas and Tanzanians told him during a trip to their countries that they migrated from Ile Ife to their present abode in East Africa.

He explained that the history of the ancient Ile Ife was deeper than what was available in the academic institutions.

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Yoruba tradition, according to him, has not been adequately written down while so many facts and figures concerning their history, were distorted from the original ties.

The monarch put the challenge before the academia while addressing journalists ahead of an International Conference on ‘Ile-Ife and Yoruba Civilization: Nexus between Tradition and Modernity’, at his palace in Ife.

He said Yoruba race has about a quarter of its history documented, hence, the reason he is collaborating with select universities on the need to properly document the history of the race with a view to enhancing cohesion among the people globally.

“We have good evidence to believe that Igbo race has its roots here in Ile-Ife. There is Ile-Igbo here in the palace which was not a recent creation but has been existing here for decades. For this and many other reasons, I believe we need proper documentation of our history,” the Ooni said.

“We are not involving government in this project so that we can just place all the facts together, we must write our history properly and put things the right for the coming generations”.