Ife, Osun – Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ife, has claimed that the Jews, who are the major tribe that occupied Israel in the Asia continent and found in some parts of Europe, came out of the Igbo tribe of Nigeria.
The monarch made the comment in a video seen by TheTalk.NG, where he also said that the Igbo were the first to discover commerce and wealth in the history of the human race.
Before now, many of the Igbo people have claimed that they originated from the Jews, and the claim has remained a popularly accepted notion about the dominant people of Southeast Nigeria.
Ooni of Ife speaks on true identity of Igbo
However, the Yoruba monarch said that the reverse was the case, stating that the race of the Jews is very similar, but the Igbo are older than the Israelites.
The Ooni said:
“There is this mistake that the world usually makes; they make this mistake that the Igbos came from the Jews. No, it is the other way round.
“The truth be told, the first human race that existed was the Igbos before the Jews, and we were all living together at the centre of tropical rain forest, which is the heart of the whole thing.”
Amid Israel-Palestine War, Ooni of Ife speaks of Igbo connection
Ooni Ogunwusi’s comment came amid controversies that Lagos, a Yoruba land, was a no man’s land, a claim first made by Jaja Anucha Wachukwu, the first speaker of the House of Representatives.
It also came at a time the Jews were killing the Palestinians in Gaza. History has it that the Palestinians accommodated the Israeli after the first world war just as many analysts believe Lagos accommodated many other tribes.
Some Nigerians have however taken to the comment section of the post and expressed their reactions. See their comments below:
