For those who have read or listened to his interviews, he takes no prisoners but exudes pungency, clarity and factuality in his adumbration of issues. Versed in his grasp of the historical details of his chieftaincy house, the Tobin (Konibo-ye-Awanta) Chieftaincy House of Finima in Bonny Kingdom and now privileged to superintendent over its affairs as Sibidabo (Chairman) of the Elders Council, Amasenibo Dagogo Tobin has deployed tact, strategic engagement and convivial brotherliness in mustering his kinsmen together and sustaining the unity of the House in the absence yet of a chief.

In this interview with the Publisher of Kristina Reports, Godswill Jumbo, he responds to claims made by the newly installed Chief and Head of the Buoye Omuso Brown Major House of Bonny Kingdom, Chief Dagogo Lambert Brown, among other critical issues. It promises to be an interesting intellectual journey. Enjoy!

On Wednesday, January 12, 2022, the Brown House installed Lambert Dagogo Brown as its Chief and Head and proclaimed him as Amadabo of Finima. How do you react to this?

I will say congratulations to the Brown House for installing a chief. It is a welcome development. It is good and proper for a chieftaincy house to have a chief. Once again, I say congratulations to them. I just hope they did it right. That is what I will say about the installation of their chief.

But on the second issue that you raised concerning him being installed as an Amadabo of Finima, it is foreign, it is alien to Bonny Kingdom. It is alien to Finima Community. We have never had an Amadabo of Finima rather we have three independent chieftaincy Houses with their respective chiefs. I don’t know where this is coming from but I understand when you are not from a place you cannot understand History, Culture and Tradition of the people. The Insignia “Palace of the Amadabo” in front of their Opuwari is meant to deceive the unsuspecting public, especially, the corporate entities. There is this very popular adage that “if a child does not ask questions, he will build his house on top of the grave”. That is what I have to say about that. 

In his goodwill message, after his installation, Chief Dagogo Lambert Brown, as he is now, made some claims which we would want you to respond to. One of them is that “Finima was founded by the ancestors of the Buoye Omuso Brown Major House, being the first arrivals on the island far before Bonny came to stay”. And he referenced page 105 of the book, “The Trading States of the Oil Rivers” by G. I. Jones. Is this a position you share?

For clarity, let us look at the book that he talked about; page 105, which is chapter 8 of the book, talks about “The History of Bonny”. (Opens the book) it is very clear that the page he referred to never talked about the founders of Finima, never talked about the Brown House and never talked about the ownership of Finima. So, that claim is just a bunch of lies. These people don’t know the history of Finima. 

Come to think of it, on one of the tombs erected by the Brown House in Finima, it was inscribed “In Blessed Memory of Ipuo 1245 AD. CIRCA. Ipuo succeeded Kongo as Clan Head of Finima at Ikpakpayo. He was part of a Quantumvirate with King Awusa who ruled over Bonny as descendants of the Duawari”.   Rest in Peace”. Is this not a big joke? Where did they get this funny and fake history from? Let me give them a little help. Prince Opu-Ipuo – that was his real name – was a descendant of King Kamalu and was part of the Quantumvirate who ruled Bonny around the 1700 AD and not 1245 AD as wrongly stated by the Browns. He was never a descendant of Kongo. Kongo existed centuries before Opu-Ipuo arrived Finima from Bonny Main Town after Perekule became King. This happened around the 1700 AD.  These young men (Brown) have finally revealed their true identity. They have told the world that they are not connected to Finima rather they are connected to Opu-Ipuo. They should therefore go back to main Bonny and beg His Majesty, King of Bonny Kingdom to give them a place to stay. I remember vividly that HRH Late King Secondus Opuada Pepple, then Amanyanabo of Bonny Kingdom in 1992, at a gathering In Finima Town Hall, told the Browns to their faces to move to George Pepple Community because they have no business in Finima Land, that he has enough land to give to them there.

Another claim is that “Finima is owned by the Buoye Omuso Brown Major House and has remained so from genesis”; and he made referenced Suit No. PHC/174/72. Is this correct?

I have just told you what the late King said. But referring to the said suit, yes, we had a case that concerned a parcel of land between Finima and Bonny where Shell Terminal is currently situated on. Yes, we took them to court and they won that case. It was over a parcel of land between Bonny and Finima that is owned by the Browns and the Jumbos. We all know that the Jumbos are not part of Finima Community. But in 1974, in Suit No. PHC/29/74, they took us to court over a parcel of land that is located right at the centre of Finima. It was part of the vast land owned by the Tobin House that is more than half the size of Finima. They took us to court because we stopped them from building on a piece of land. They presented their own judgment in the suit of 1972. The Chief of Brown House at that time, Late Chief Idamieibi Brown, was a witness in that case and he presented that 1972 judgment. But the trial Judge made it clear to them that the said land in that 1972 judgment was a parcel of land between Finima and Bonny while the land in this case of 1974 is a land that is right at the centre of Finima. They (Brown House) lost the case.

The judgment dwelt on where the two parties in the suit derived their title over the land. And I will read some paragraphs of that judgement. We want the world to actually hear and know the truth about Finima. Paragraph 2 of page 3 of this judgment says “In the present case, therefore, what I have to do is to compare plaintiff’s route of title with that of the defendant and ascertain which of them have a better title and therefore the legal right of possession of the plot of land in dispute”. What this simply meant is that the matter has moved beyond the two individuals to the two Chieftaincy Houses as to ascertain who had a better title to the land. It was no more an individual matter. You hear them say that the case was between Betty and Gogo but it moved beyond that to a case between the two houses where their respective Chiefs gave evidences as to who has a superior over the land.

I have read one of the paragraphs, I will read another. You will hear more of these. In page 4, paragraph 4 of the judgement, the Judge said, “it will be seen that the land involved in Suit No. PHC/174/72 (that is the one the self-acclaimed Amadabo made reference to) is not the same as the one in the present case. The land in the case PHC/174/72 is the land lying between Finima and Bonny from which revenue is derived whereas the land (Igbewari) with which we are concerned is within Finima Town”. And I am talking about the land where NLNG is today. Put it this way, I want you to know who the judge was. The judge in this case was Justice Pepple of Blessed Memory, who understood the history of Bonny Kingdom.

That should be Justice Barclay Pepple?

Yes, and he made it clear that the two cases are different and the land in question are different. The land in this case is right inside Finima. There is a particular paragraph that will interest you (the more). In page 10, paragraph 2, the Judge made it very clear that “if Buoye Omuso Brown House has most, if not all the land in Finima why was it necessary for Lambert Brown, a principal member of Brown House, and Mark Brown to go to Tobin House to beg from the crumbs that fell from their table?  It is noteworthy that the Larbert Brown referenced in this case is the father of the self-styled or self-acclaimed Amadabo. His father, Lambert Brown applied to Tobin House for land to build his house. He never had land even though he was a prominent man in Brown House. He was even the Secretary of the Brown House (as at then), yet he never had land to build a house. He came to Tobin House and applied for land and we wholeheartedly gave him land to build. This is one of the many applications for land which came to Tobin House from the Brown House., From time immemorial we have been giving them land. Omoni, the first son of Omuso, who was the second chief of Brown House, applied and was given land to build house for his wife by the Tobin in 1870. The documents are available. Do you know why we gave to him? It is because Omuso and Awanta were of the same mother. Omoni was seen as a cousin and was given land. When Abebo, the third chief and son of Omoni, died in 1912, they never had anywhere to bury him, they applied to Tobin House for land and Tobin House gave them land to bury the Chief – the document is available. The descendants of Awanta and descendants of Omuso lived peacefully together until non-indigenes infiltrated the Brown House and started causing problems.  Are these the people who claim to own Finima? Well, the author of that speech is a non-indigene, he doesn’t know or maybe he knows but is trying to hide the truth.

Okay, going froward, another claim he made was that “Finima is not a three Chieftaincy Community. The Buoye Omuso Brown Major House has three Minor Chieftaincy Houses namely; Adum (Tamunobere), Attoni (Doughubo) and Tobin (Konibo) Chieftaincy Houses”. How do you view this? Is it consistent with what you know about Finima?

Can a true son of Finima make this statement? Though I know he is not. If he was born and has lived in Finima, he should know better than this. I will read from a document. Let me take us back to 20^th January, 1869, after the crisis in Bonny Kingdom between the Manilla Pepple and Annie Pepple Houses that necessitated the exit of the Annie Pepple and other Houses from Bonny Kingdom to present day Opobo. The document is headed thus: “The agreement between the Chiefs of Bonny for the preservation of peace in Bonny on 20^th January, 1869. This agreement was midwifed by the British under the authority of Frank Wilson, Her Britannic Majesty’s Acting Consul, J.P. Jones, Commander Her Majesty’s Ship “Speedwell” and Thos Campbell, Chairman, Court of Equity.  I know he hasn’t the knowledge of this document. If he had, he wouldn’t have made this blunder. Before the crises between Manilla Pepple and the Annie Pepple Houses, Tobin was an independent chieftaincy House. Some houses left with the Annie Pepple House; while other Chieftaincy Houses stayed back. This was the agreement signed by the chieftaincy houses that stayed back in Bonny Kingdom by 1869. If you take a look at the document, the Chieftaincy Houses are listed and number 11 on the list is the Tobin Chieftaincy House. So, how can you then say we are part of Brown House today? How can anyone corroborate that? Just like I said earlier, they don’t know. Are they indigenes? If they are true sons of Finima, Bonny Kingdom, they would have known the history, customs and tradition of the people. They don’t even know how chieftaincy houses were created and that is why they say all these funny things.

The Brown House Chief also claimed that “The Chief and Head of the Buoye Omuso Brown Major House is the Paramount Chief of Finima, otherwise known as the Amadabo of Finima”. Are you aware of this?

This is serious. This must be a joke. Wariopusenibo, can you hear the joke? (Turns to Secretary of the Elders’ Council Tobin Chieftaincy House, Wariopusenibo Darlington Tobin).

Darlington Tobin: This is very, very funny. How can the chief of a Sub house, a house under Hart Chieftaincy House be a paramount chief? A house whose chief is been made and capped by the Hart Chieftaincy House say their Chief is a paramount chief? While Tobin House Chief is capped by the Elders of Tobin Chieftaincy House.

Dagogo Tobin: Listen, I’ll give you a short story. I visited late Chief Yibo Buowari Brown on the 1^St January 1999 and in the course of our discussion I asked this same question. I asked him if his grandfather, i.e., late Chief Buowari Brown ever answered the paramount chief or an Amadabo of Finima? Even though Chief Yibo claimed to have lived with his grandfather, he said he couldn’t remember. And I knew why he couldn’t remember. because it never existed. We have documents in our possession, letters written by late Chief Buowari Brown; he never called or referred to himself a paramount chief or amadabo or any other name other than Chief because he knows the history, culture and tradition of the people. But let me tell you this. Chief Idamieibi Brown, a one-time chief of Brown house was capped a chief in 1971 by Chief Josiah Ikoli Hart, the then chief of Hart Chieftaincy House. We have the pictures, which are very clear. The Brown House Chiefs are capped by the Chiefs of Captain Hart House right from time immemorial. We all know the history of the Brown House and Captain Hart House and why the Chiefs of Hart House cap the Chiefs of Brown House and present them to the Amanyanabo of Bonny Kingdom.  

Some people think that the call by the new Chief for the Attoni and Tobin Houses to nominate their Wariseniapu to the Council of Alapu of the Buoye Omuso Brown House is a call for unity, oneness and harmonious relationship as brothers. Is that a view you share?

This is very unfortunate. Tobin Chieftaincy House, an independent chieftaincy house for that matter, descendants of the founder of Finima should nominate Wariseniaopu to join the Brown House Council of Elders? If these young men are true Bonny people can such a thing happen? An independent house should nominate elders to join another house Elders Council? Does it make any sense? It is clear that they don’t know what they are doing, they are not Bonny people. They don’t know the History, custom and tradition of the Bonny people. If they do, they won’t make such statement. We are descendants of the founder of Finima I say again. Well, as non-indigenes they don’t know and we won’t bother ourselves with what they don’t know.

Given this development, some people fear that this may degenerate to crisis and maybe violence, what is your take on this and any advice to the residents of Finima, especially, the youths, who are caught up in all of these?

For us in Tobin House, I advise everybody to be calm. We know they don’t understand what they have done. Bonny Kingdom has the King who is the custodian of the custom and tradition of the Ibani people and I am very sure the King of Bonny Kingdom and the Bonny Chiefs Council will react to this. From what we have seen maybe they are planning to secede. But they cannot secede from Bonny Kingdom because they are not the only Chieftaincy House in Finima. They can move back to where they came from, no problem. But we are calling on the security agencies and multinationals to watch critically at what these people are doing. We understand clearly that their plan is to arm twist the multinationals for financial gains. They should be mindful of these strangers who are trying to rewrite the History, customs and traditions of Bonny Kingdom. We appeal to the Amanyanabo-in-Council to make a statement and set the records straight. As for members of Tobin House none should have any dealings with the self-styled Amadabo. Tobin House is an independent chieftaincy house in Finima, Bonny Kingdom.