Idah LG : Angwa People Occupies Strategic Position NOT to be Abandoned, People At The Verge of Being Homeless, Attention Urgently Demanded to Remedy Emerging Valley in the Area

Spanning Ubi'egbe, Igalogba through Angwa to Inachalo stream/river in Idah town in Idah Local Government Area of Kogi State, The gully erosion is devastating. It is becoming a valley; extending and expanding which on yearly basis has continued to render many families homeless. 

Both the Kogi State Government and Idah Local Government Council have been appropriately informed with photos and videos. But nothing is being done to curtail this menace.

 Hence, £no words can proof anything good enough of explanation as practical seeing.” : Ibrahim Atodo said

The People Culture and History of Angwa People as chronicled by Ambassador Ayegba Abdullahi Adojoh

The Angwa people of Idah popularly known as Angwa Ayegba are said to be the descendants of about six men invited from Bebeji in the present day Kano state by Attah Ayegba Oma Idoko (the then Attah Igala) during Igala-Jukun war.

The war was as a result of Igala refusal to continue to pay the tribute on the many years security backup agreement they had with the Jukun during the migration of some Igala groups to Idah, and which Igala said the agreement should terminate but the Jukun insisted it must continue.

It was reported that these people from Bebeji were the ones, as said by the Ifa (divinations), who performed the spiritual poisoning of the Inachalo stream (making the eating of its fishes a taboo till date, in fact it won’t cook) along with the burial of an Igala Princess, Princess Omodoko by the side of the stream where her statue is still standing. While the Jukun warriors came to the stream which was the last before Idah town, they decided to drink the water, rest and then to cross the stream and take the battle to Igala people, almost all those who drank the water died and the remaining few ran back to Wukari, making the war to end even before starting.

But what tribe exactly were these Bebeji men-? Could they be Hausa?

According to various documents including the popular Kano Chronicle (Chronicle means a written account of important events in the order of their occurrences), the Kwararafa armies (Jukun, Igala, …) form Wukari invaded Kano state many times, and at a point destroyed Kano, making almost all the Hausas who were the initial settlers to run away from Kano. These armies were said to have established their camp or settlement in the present day Bebeji where they launched attacks from. That is why, today, Kano state is one of the 30 states (FCT inclusive) in which indigenous Igala people are found in Nigeria. Examples are the Attah clans and others in Kano presently. Many Jukuns are till date indigenes of Kano too.

This Bebeji which was the settlement of Jukun and Igala warriors of Kwararafa was the place Ayegba Oma Idoko invited the six people from.

Unfortunately, the first Historian who met them in Idah after been told of the place of migration (Kano) recorded them as Hausa people, and been quoted by everyone including some Angwa people till date.

But how can one on earth believed that Hausa people driven away from Kano when Kano was almost completely destroyed will still be found in the settlement of their enemies- Bebeji (like a proverbial “hunter and the hunted one?”) or in Kano to be invited for external fight? Or Assuming the Hausas were staying somewhere in Kano, if they had such spiritual power used in Idah, why would they allow such continuous attacks on them until many left the town for the invaders? Is this not like a proverbial man fetching water for others to keep in case of fire while his own house was already burning? Is that possible? No!

Moving forward, according to the same Kano Chronicle, the people invited by Attah Ayegba Oma Idoko were his siblings (brothers). But was Ayegba, the then Attah Igala Hausa? Does Hausa bear Ayegba or Idoko as a name? No!

In conclusion, since evidences have shown that almost all the Hausa ran away from Kano as a result of the constant attacks by Kwararafa warriors (Jukun and Igalas and others maybe), and with the people been said to have been invited from Bebeji which was the settlement of Wukari warriors (where no Hausa can come near let alone residing there), and with the invited people from Bebeji been said to be the siblings (brothers) of Ayegba- the then Attah Igala, it can be can concluded that Angwa people of Idah, popularly called Angwa Ayegba are descendants of Igala warriors from Kano who were of Ayegba Oma Idoko blood and not Hausa.

And so, my Angwa people of Idah, here is your real identity, Igala not Hausa erroneously given to you. No wonder they have a traditional ruler crowned by Attah Igala till date, and in Igala tradition, Attah Igala does not crown any person to rule a place except the person is of Igala blood.

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