Atunto, a Yoruba socio-cultural organisation comprising prominent Yoruba stakeholders across the globe, has strongly condemned recent narratives suggesting that the Igbo people once occupied Ile-Ife, the ancestral homeland of the Yoruba in Osun State.
In a statement jointly signed by its Chairmen—Chief Banji Ayiloge (Diaspora) and Dr. Oluwatoyin Atte (Homeland)—on Thursday, the group dismissed such claims as false and revisionist attempts to appropriate the prestige and heritage of the Yoruba people.
“We want to state unequivocally that this claim is baseless. At no time in history did the Igbos occupy or lay ancestral claim to any part of Yorubaland,” the statement read.
The group was reacting to a publication on Amazon that allegedly advanced the disputed claim. It said the book’s narrative misrepresented a statement by the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, linking Ile-Ife to Ugbo Kingdom in Ondo State, and that the claim had been erroneously supported by the Obi of Onitsha.
“At no time has Oba Obateru Akinruntan of Ugbo town acknowledged any ancestral ties with the Igbo people. On the contrary, he has consistently upheld that the Ugbo people are the original inhabitants of Ile-Ife,” the statement said.
The group also decried attempts to associate towns like Igbo-Ora, Igbosere, Oke-Igbo, Ijebu-Igbo, and Igbomina with the Igbo ethnic group based on the presence of “Igbo” in their names, clarifying that in Yoruba, the word “Igbo” simply means forest.
They further noted that the term “Igbo” is a relatively recent nomenclature for the people of the South East, who were traditionally referred to as “Ibo,” citing historical references such as the Igbo Descendant Union founded by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.
“Suppose the recent use of the word ‘Igbo’ is an attempt to lay claim to Yoruba heritage and towns; it is doomed to fail. These towns have centuries of documented history,” the group added.
Atunto accused certain ethnic groups of attempting to appropriate the Yoruba’s rich history, culture, and land, urging them to stop distorting well-established facts.
They also referenced past claims by some Igbos to the South-South region and to Jewish ancestry—claims they said were later refuted by DNA tests conducted in Israel.
“It is bizarre that some people are constantly trying to be everywhere except acknowledging their rightful place in the Southeast,” the group said.
Atunto concluded by urging Igbo writers and commentators to refrain from what it called “infantile fabrications of history” that only serve to provoke and insult the Yoruba people.
