Plans are in top gear to kick-start the centenary celebration of the death of Niger Delta legend and leader of the Itsekiri people, Chief Nanna Olomu of Koko.
As part of the centenary events, the Nanna Living History Museum in Koko, Warri North council area of Delta State and the family of the legendary Chief Nanna will today be holding a symbolic gathering in Koko.
Chief Nanna Olomu, who lived between 1840 and 1916, was one of the most charismatic leaders of the Itsekiri in the old Warri Kingdom.
He was appointed the governor of the Benin River area (Itsekiri land) by the then British colonial administration between 1885 and 1894, when the British-Ebrohimi war broke out.
He was tried and detained in Calabar between 1894 and 1895, deported to Accra in Ghana in 1896, returned to Nigeria in 1906 and died in Koko on July 3, 1916.
Meanwhile, the Director General of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), Yusuf Abdallah Usman, has reaffirmed the commission’s commitment to preserving Chief Nanna’s legacies.
Usman, in a letter addressed to the head of the Nanna family in Koko, expressed the commission’s goodwill and solidarity with all that the Nanna image represents for Nigeria and Africa.
“We have been informed by Pa J.O.S Ayomike, a friend of our commission and a strong pillar of Nanna Living History Museum, Koko that you have planned a candle light ceremony to mark the centenary of the death of your patriarch, Chief Nanna Olomu this July.
“The commission, as the manager of the Nanna Living History Museum in Koko, is the custodian of some of the tangible evidences of his legacy and contributions to our collective cultural heritage. We wish to pledge our unwavering commitment to preserving his legacy as we identify with you all in this period of his remembrance”, the statement said.