We are Not Kalabari, Tombia Kingdom Insists
…Urges Fubara to call Asari-Dokubo to order
Barikui Felix, Port Harcourt
The chiefs and people of Tombia in Degema local council of Rivers State have insisted that they are not of the Kalabari Ethnic Nationality and shouldn’t be annexed by anybody as part of Kalabari.
This is as they urged Governor Siminalayi Fubara to call the newly installed Amanyanabo of Elem—Kalabari Kingdom, Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo, to order over his alleged attempt to annex their communities into the Kalabari Kingdom.
The Tombia people, at a press conference in Port Harcourt, maintained that they are a distinct people with a distinct history but have co-existed peacefully with the Kalabaris for decades, having migrated and settled at their present location from Ekpetiama-be-Tombia in the present-day Bayelsa State.
They came up with this while reacting to a recent peace meeting summoned by Alhaji Mujahid Asari-Dokubo at the Abonnema and Elem-Kalabari communities, at which he allegedly laid claim to some communities in the Tombia Kingdom, especially those around the Cawthorne Channel Area, as belonging to the Kalabari people.
Chief Peniel Omubo-Idonibo, the Vice Chairman of Tombia Council of Chiefs who spoke on behalf of the chiefs and people of the kingdom, insisted that the Cawthorne Channel Area in the New Calabar River apart from the alliance entered between Tombia and the Kalabari Kingdom for defence and commerce, there had never been one being subordinate to the other.
He listed the communities along the Cawthorne Channel Area where Asari-Dokubo is attempting to annex, including Igboboko, Elegbe-Ama, Mbikiri-Ama, Manima-Apu Ama, Mbikafimumo-Ama, Alapumujibiri, Ikolia-Ama, Bregede, and Bekinkiri.
The community leader also suspected that Asari-Dokubo may be eyeing the communities because of the rich mineral resources on the land.
Omubo-Idonibo cited relevant court judgements such as PHC/1842/2001 delivered on 12th November 2018 by Justice E.N Ogbuji of the Rivers State High Court wherein he ruled that where Cawthorne Channel Area 1 is located is the bonafide property of Tombia Kingdom and that of DHC/5/2011 between late King Theophilus Princewill versus Tombia Kingdom and SPDC delivered by Justice S.O Benson.
The community urged Fubara to call Asari-Dokubo to order so as not to cause a crisis that could destroy the brotherliness that had existed between the two kingdoms over the years.
He said: ” The ultimate purpose of this press conference is for peace, unity and brotherliness to reign in the Kingdoms of Tombia and Kalabari. We are, therefore, once again appealing to the King of Elem-Kalabari to use his newly acquired position to promote peace, unity and brotherliness as his predecessors did for the benefit of all of us. Tombia is a friend of Kalabari and can never be her enemy, but let the truth be told always, and let us accord that respect to each other.
“We are, therefore, calling on the Governor of the State, Siminalayi Fubara, to kindly call to order Alhaji Asari Dokubo, whom he most recently recognised as the king of Elem-Kalabari not to toy with the people of Tombia Kingdom, by trying to annex the communities and settlements of Tombia Kingdom to Kalabari Kingdom.”
The community also used the medium to appeal to Governor Fubara to accord Tombia stool the needed government recognition as he has done to other stools around the area
