Responding, Keagborekuzi said the signatories purporting to be speaking for the Council of Traditional Rulers of Delta State do not have an executive council at the moment, warning that the communique issued by persons claiming to speak for the council is therefore invalid, out of order, null, void and of no value or effect whatsoever. “The tenure of the Obi of Owa, Dr. Emmanuel Efeizomor, as chairman of the Council of Traditional Rulers of Delta State, has long elapsed therefore, he can no longer act or speak for the body. It should be lessened and ignored by everyone. No one should, therefore, try to speak for a body that is presently headless.

    “The statement, signed by the Obi of Owa and his collaborators, insults and denigrates our revered king by referring to him as the Obi of Agbor “as properly and legally known”. “The Dein of Agbor is an occupier of the throne of Agbor before whom the forebears of the Obi of Owa knelt in greetings and supplication, as their king and overlord. They were the Ayuwè of the Agbor Kingdom whose descendants should not be permitted to denigrate his overlord, the Dein of Agbor.

“That Dein, is the title of Keagborekuzi Benjamin Ikenchuku the First, Dein of Agbor Kingdom, the present occupant of the throne of Agbor and inheritor of the bloodline of Dein Eborka, founder and progenitor of the present dynasty of Agbor Kingdom since AD1270. Agbor kingdom does not need government laws or a gazette to name our king. “That any traditional ruler who was not a member of the Western Nigeria House of Chiefs cannot be called a first-class traditional ruler today in Delta State. That is the truth as expressed by the Dein of Agbor.

“That any king whose throne and claim to Kingship did not predate colonialism cannot be truly called a king as he is a creation of the British Colonial Government. Such “king” can only be in the mold of the Warrant Chiefs appointed by the British Colonial Government in the Eastern Region and other British Colonies.

“There cannot be kings without kingdoms. The Obi of Owa throne was self-declared in 1951 during the last decade of colonialism in Nigeria to break away from the Agbor kingdom.

“That the facts of history cannot be revised or changed to suit the fancies of current politics. The Council of Traditional Rulers of Delta State should be a custodian of the history, culture, and traditions of the people of the state and should not be run to suit the politics of the times,” it stated