For those who are conversant with the legal community, the name Dolapo Boma Tella Attoni commands attention, especially for the political sojourners who need the services of keen-sighted legal experts with eagle eyes to discern the technicalities upon which election petition cases are won or lost. On his career path, Dolapo Boma Tella Attoni, great grandson to late Chief Mark Attoni, Snr., Barrister and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, and currently the Managing Solicitor of the Law Office of D. Tella Attoni & Co, with two decades of jurisprudence, advocacy and rights activism, has been a former Legal Adviser of the Bonny Local Government Council; former President, Rotary Club of Port Harcourt Cosmopolitan, District 9141; and former Secretary and Captain, Port Harcourt Polo Club.

Attoni, an election petition and Constitutional law expert, one time State Legal Adviser of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), and an active member of the Bonny Lawyers Forum (BLF) and Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Port Harcourt Branch, whose forays into Politics saw him run for the seat to represent Bonny Constituency in the Rivers State House of Assembly In 2011, in this interview with the Publisher of Kristina Reports, Godswill Jumbo, shed further light on the raging controversy regarding the Brown House chieftaincy, Amadabo proclamation, and dynamics of Finima Community leadership. We invite you to take a seat at the table and revel in this intellectual banquet.

Your antecedent kind of puts you in the middle of a lot of things in Finima including the proclamation of the new Chief and Head of Buoye Omuso Brown Major House as the Amadabo of Finima. This status, this position, this nomenclature, Amadabo of Finima, is this something you are conversant about? 

l.et me make it very clear and state emphatically that the purported title: “Amadabo of Finima Community” is a strange one. It is unknown, it is not acceptable and it is a very cosmetic title by whoever is bearing that or parading himself as Amadabo of Finima. Finima Community is not only made up of but is also owned by three autonomous chieftaincy houses: which are the Chief Attoni War Canoe House, the Buoye Omuso Brown House as well as the Awanta Tobin house of Finima. These three houses make up Finima. It will be recalled that before the emergence of the oil companies, particularly, NLNG and Mobil, the three houses resided at old Finima Town, they owned their various settlements, waterfronts and cemeteries. They now left all those properties at old Finima and were relocated or rather settled in New Finima. Before then and till date, the three houses were not governed by anybody going by that title Amadabo. These three houses have their reserved seats in the Bonny Chiefs Council. Meanwhile of the 3 Houses in Finima, only the Chief Attoni House is traditionally a true War Canoe House as she maintained men and went to Wars for the kingdom.

Let me also remind members of the public that this same dubious road or path was adopted by late Chief Israel Idamieibi Brown, who after he was suspended from the Bonny Chiefs’ Council, decided to style himself as the ‘Amadabo’ cum Paramount Ruler of Finima. Following that proclamation by Chief Israel Idamieibi Brown as the Amadabo and Paramount Ruler of Finima Community, members of his House, as well as, leaders of the Tobin and Attoni Houses denounced and discountenanced that claim. It is clear that  he never succeeded. Before late Chief Idamieibi Brown, no chief of any of the three houses or the Brown House in particular  came out to declare himself as paramount ruler or Amadabo of Finima Community. I will refer you to a publication made by the then central executive committee of Finima Community chaired by Elder Bara Brown, who is still alive and a principal member of the Brown House and which also had late Chief Young Tobin as Vice Chairman and Elder A.F. Tella as General Secretary. The publication these three houses wrote to the then Executive Governor of Rivers State, Rufus Ada George, dated 11th March, 1993. Let me read relevant portions of the letter regarding the same paramountcy or alleged title of Amadabo particularly refuting late Chief Israel Idamieibi Brown’s claim that he is the paramount ruler of Finima Community. This was what they stated: “Your Excellency, we wish to categorically state here that Finima is not the exclusive property of the Brown House alone as being claimed by idamieibi Brown, Esq. Finima is made of three chieftaincy houses: the Attoni, Tobin and Browns who occupy their distinct lanes apart from lands communally owned by them. 

In that same publication they also buttress the fact that Brown House is not the exclusive owner of Finima Community by making reference to the judgment against the Brown House in Suit No. PHC/29/74, which also went on appeal and which they lost too. And in that same suit, the same Idamieibi Brown testified on behalf of the Brown House. The elders of Finima that signed the publication refuting the position of late Chief Idamieibi Brown includes Bara Brown, Elder Igoni Tella Attoni, I. Maxwell Brown, R. A. Brown, A. L. Tobin, J. O. Tobin and many others, as well as Donald Attoni. These were all members of the committee that signed the document. The same committee negotiated the terms for relocation to the present day New Finima. They acted on behalf of the three chieftaincy houses.  

So, we of the Attoni House clearly condemn any attempt to usurp the title of His Majesty, the King of Grand Bonny Kingdom. I must say that the mischief and or diabolic motive behind the use of the so-called title: Amadabo is actually geared or calculated at ridiculing the Amanyanabo’s stool. The people of Finima Community recognize the King of Bonny as the paramount ruler of the entire Kingdom which Finima is part of and their allegiance is to the King of Grand Bonny Kingdom.

Some people who have looked at the scenario playing out think that maybe this is evolving situation. If you go to Abalamabie, Burukiri, Oloma, and Peterside, among others, these are communities where you have more than one chieftaincy house and nobody there has come out to say he is the Amadabo. They suggest that what if Finima is evolving and what if the other two Houses are in on this?

When you talk about an evolving situation, how are you evolving? Shouldn’t the consent of the other Houses be sought? We have passed the age when society is ruled by savage. There must be rule of law. You must consult and obtain the consent of those who own or constitute a community. If tomorrow there is a need – for now there is no need – for the three houses to have an Amadabo they will have to sit down and discuss and agree. Is it going to be a permanent thing? Is it going to be rotational? What are the terms? For now, like I said, we don’t see the basis and the need. We have situation in Finima Community where from day one, the Brown House owing to its size in terms of population wants to usurp every opportunity that is supposed to be available to the three houses. Then we must meet and agree.

But the Brown House is not speculating. They reference suit number PHC/174/72 as the basis of their ownership of Finima and thus a right to superintendent over the other two houses. And in that same statement made by the now Chief Dagogo Lambert Brown on that day of his installation, he stated that the Adum, Attoni and Tobin Houses are sub sets of the Brown House.  

Let me say that that claim that the Attoni House is a sub set or a sub house under the Brown House are lies from the pit of hell. The Chief Attoni House remains an autonomous house. It does not present it chief to the Brown House before its chief or head can be admitted into the Bonny Chiefs Council. We appoint our head and Chief independently and present him to the Bonny Chiefs Council independently. These are not the characteristics of autonomous Houses, and ours is not different.

The Chairman of Tobin House while responding to these claims said that the Brown House originated from Omuso…

Omuso was the founder of the Brown House, the first chief of the Brown House.

The Tobin House Chairman stated that since his (Omuso) installation and presentation to the Amanyanabo of Bonny, all chiefs of the Brown House have been capped, installed and presented to the Amanyanabo of Bonny by the Chief of Captain Hart House for admittance into the Chiefs Council.

It is a notorious traditional history of Bonny Kingdom of how late Chief Omuso emerged as a chief. We have records. I am not sure any member of the Brown House will claim ignorance of the fact that Omuso was one time rescued by King Fubara who was accompanied by the then Chief of the Hart House. He was rescued from a cargo ship that was bound to leave Bonny Island. He was sold into slavery by his brothers based on traditional account which even the Brown House has not refuted till date. Under the guardianship of the Hart House, he was returned back to Finima. We know that fact but we should also realize that by the time he returned to Finima Community there were other houses and there were people already living, settled and residing at Finima which he didn’t allocate land to. And we don’t have record or history that he conquered them or chased them away or banished them from Finima and became the emperor of Finima Community. The records only show that he became the first head of Brown, a recognized chieftaincy house.

But his descendants want to project the history of the Brown House beyond Omuso. They claim it was founded by Opu-Ipuo, who they say is of the direct lineage of Kongo. But historians say there is no biological linkage between Kongo and Opu-Ipuo. An inconsistent dimension to this is that if the Brown House was founded by Opu-Ipuo, how come the first Chief was Omuso who was born almost 200 years later?

We should distinguish between the era when chieftaincy houses became recognized as against when the early settlers or people settled on the land. The early settlers did not settle on the land based on the (Chieftaincy) House system. So, the ownership of Finima can also not be traced or fall squarely on the time the Brown House was created. There were people, there were descendants who were settled on the land long before the Brown House was created. For the Attoni House, we are the descendants of Sono, who is also a descendant of Kongo.

So, you are saying that all three houses from that lineage?

Yes, we all trace our lineage or root down to Kongo either as his direct blood descendants or followers.

And nobody is supposed to superintend over the other?

Nobody. Like I said at old Finima, there was no need for people to fight over land, there was abundance of land. The concept of fighting for land that we don’t even need or that we have not decided to put into use came with the presence of the multinational oil companies. We are predominantly fishermen; we are not really farmers. Our primary occupation is traditionally fishing. We are not known to be effective farmers that control and farm on vast hectares of land. It is the waterfront that was key and we all had our waterfronts. We prefer to reside within our waterfronts to pursue our traditional occupation which remains fishing. But following the emergence of the oil companies, people started fabricating their own traditional history and account to suit their own selfish interests. In old Finima, like I said we had our own fishing settlements, we had our residential settlements, burial grounds, and all that. So, we didn’t have any issue. We gave up those places for New Finima. So, no one can turn around to say he owns New Finima to the exclusion of the other Houses. The entire Bonny Kingdom know the truth. The multinational oil companies know who they met when they came to take up or acquire our community land. They know they dealt with the three houses and with the consent of the King of Grand Bonny Kingdom. We now relocated.

I am aware that the Brown House chieftaincy is a matter that is subjudice. So, I would not want to recognize anybody presently as the Chief or Head of the Brown House in view of the pending court case.

In his speech during his installation, Dagogo Lambert referenced page 105 of the book, The trading States of the Oil Rivers by G. I. Jones, saying that that is where it is clearly captured that the Brown House owned Finima as the earliest settlers. But upon scrutiny of that page, we can’t find any reference to the Brown House or any of his claims.  

I am not sure his conclusion is predicated on what is expressly stated there (reads the page). Looking at what is written there it means that Finima was one part, the Bonny State was already in existence already and there were people resident there. But he (G. I. Jones) now moved to Finima, which is part of the Bonny State. This does not suggest that the people of Finima settled within the Bonny State first before any other people. There were people settled in the greater part of the Bonny state already, while they proceeded to settle at the Finima section which forms part of the same greater Bonny State.

Does that page state whether those who settled there were Tobin or Attoni or Brown?

No, it does not. It does not support their claim and does not attribute Iyamkpo as their exclusive umbrella or that of the Brown House. It does not support his claim and he needs to give a plain and proper interpretation to that provision and not to input his own cosmetic claim.

Given the keen interest the global community now has on Finima, especially, the investors who are bringing in their money to invest, and the various projects coming there. What are the assurances that everyone should have about these developments around Finima?

The members of the Attoni House have always embraced peace, we don’t have any history of fighting our brothers. The Brown House and Tobin House are our brothers. I personally have several of my uncles and aunties in the Brown House. And the Brown House is blessed with very prominent sons and daughters with very rich backgrounds such as Chief Henry Buowari Brown. You can go and read his very rich profile which is yet to be surpassed by any of us and even in his house in present day time. I have so many prominent members of Finima Community who are my relations from the Brown House, the Allwell Browns. One of them was a very prominent pilot.