THE INDIGENOUS IGBO PEOPLE OF BENUE: THE FORGOTTEN KIN RISING AGAIN

THE INDIGENOUS IGBO PEOPLE OF BENUE: THE FORGOTTEN KIN RISING AGAIN

THE INDIGENOUS IGBO PEOPLE OF BENUE: THE FORGOTTEN KIN RISING AGAIN

For too long, a hidden truth has been buried under Nigeria’s artificial map.
For too long, the children of the same ancestors have been told they are strangers in their own land.
But truth, like fire, cannot stay silent forever. And today, it burns bright again from the valleys of Benue State.

Yes, there are indigenous Igbo people in Benue State.
They are not migrants. They are not minorities. They are not borrowed citizens of the North.
They are the sons and daughters of the ancient Igbo civilization, a people whose history was distorted by colonial manipulation and political lies.

Long before the British drew their careless borders, the Igbo nation stretched deep into the Benue Valley.
Their ancestors founded thriving communities; Ado, Okpokwu, Ogbadibo, Oju and so on with the same language, culture and traditions as Nsukka, Nkanu and Enugu Ezike.

In Ado LGA, the people of Utonkon, Ekile and Ijigbam still speak an Igbo dialect, and same in Obi LGA. They celebrate Iri Ji (New Yam Festival) with the same rituals as their brothers in Enugu. Their masquerades, the Odo and Akpogho dance to the same ancestral rhythm found across Northern Igboland.

Even their names; Chukwuma, Okafor, Ozoemena, Nwakaego and so on echoes loudly in the land.
These are not borrowed names.
They are proof of bloodline of identity of a heritage that colonial boundaries could not erase.

When the British invaded and began carving out provinces for administrative convenience, they cared nothing about cultural unity or ancestry.
They simply took their rulers, drew lines on paper, and called them “boundaries.”

That was how some Igbo territories were forced into what became the Northern Protectorate, territories that now lie in Benue and Kogi States.
From that moment, the descendants of these Igbo were made to live under different systems, languages and governments, while their true heritage was deliberately blurred.
But blood does not lie.
Generations later, the truth is speaking again.

Despite decades of neglect and misrepresentation, the Igbo of Benue have held tightly to their roots.
Their dialect is still pure. Their festivals are still alive. Their ways of greeting, of marriage, of music, of title-taking all remain Igbo.

Go to Utonkon during the yam festival; the chants will remind you of Nsukka.
Watch their masquerades; you will see the spirit of Enugu Ezike and Aguleri.
Listen to their elders speak, and you’ll hear the same proverbs used across Nri and Awka.
This is not coincidence. It is continuity, living evidence that the Igbo spirit cannot be erased.

Today, a new awakening is happening among the Igbo of Benue.
Young men and women from Utonkon, Ekile, and Ekwulo are reclaiming what history tried to bury.
They are standing tall and saying:
“We are not lost tribes. We are Igbo, and we have always been Igbo.”

Through social media, cultural revivals and truth-telling platforms like Biafra Historical Facts, they are reconnecting with their kith and kin across the East.
They are rewriting the story their ancestors could not tell.

The colonial map may have divided us, but it did not destroy us.
The fire of identity is burning again from Nsukka to Ado, from Nri to Utonkon.

History is shifting.
The world must know that the Igbo nation is larger, older, and more united than the lines of Nigeria’s creation.
The indigenous Igbo of Benue State stand today as living proof that you can bury a truth for a century, but you can never kill the truth.

“Reclaiming our story, one forgotten land at a time”.