Irri Kingdom
An Odio-Ologbo. A hunting call — ti-ri — that became a name. From Irri went Oleh, the Agbon towns of Urhobo, and a ring of daughter settlements that still call themselves children of Irri.
Where Irri sits
Irri is in Isoko South. Neighbours named in community notes: Uzere, Aviara, Oyede, Idheze and Oleh. Assembly seat: Isoko South I — Oleh, Emede, Irri. Ikime also recorded the older name Erhivwi. The people call themselves Emo Irri.
History
Two layers sit on top of each other. First the long walk from Aka. Then the short walk out of Uzere. Both are told as fact in the town.
Four brothers
The tradition that starts in Benin, in the time of Oba Ewuare, names four brothers: Nnuze, Odi, Omo-Ode and Omore. The road given is Isele-Uku, Agbor, a stretch of the old Rivers country, Irowa, then Uzere. There they stayed. Then Omo-Ode and Omore went on.
Omo-Ode, out hunting, found ground that looked like an island in the forest. He called his brother: “Ti-ri! Ti-ri!” — come and see. That call is the folk etymology of the name Irri. He settled at Eneru, still spoken of as the first hearth of the kingdom. A primary school in the town still carries his name.
From Uzere
A shorter, widely printed line says Irri came out of Uzere, and that Oleh later came out of Irri. That is why the three towns sit so close, and why Oleh’s own origin stories keep an older brother in Uzere and a hunter, Emore, tied to Irri. This page will not flatten the two accounts into one date.
Towns that came out of Irri
Irri is a mother town. The list below is what the public record will stand. It is not a claim that every street in those places still takes orders from Eneru.
Other clans
- Oleh — headquarters of Isoko South. The common tradition is that Oleh moved out of Irri.
- Agbon (Urhobo, Ethiope East) — Kokori, Okpara Inland, Okpara Waterside, Eku. Repeated in Isoko origin lists as a migration from Irri.
Children of Irri — named settlements
- Ada-Irri
- Idheze-Irri
- Ikpide
- Ivrogbo-Irri (on the Ase creek; named from the ivro fish)
- Iwreogboko
- Canaan Irri
- Ivori
- Uro-Irri
Ivrogbo-Irri sits on the Ase, a tributary toward the Forcados. In the colonial years it was a palm-oil buying station. Its own note says descendants of Omode founded it after a heavy catch of moon-fish. Ada-Irri and Uro-Irri are named as the same descent.
Four quarters
The mother town is divided into four quarters. The daughter settlements listed above sit outside this four, as children of Irri, not as a fifth quarter.
Uzi
One of the four quarters of Irri Kingdom.
Eviewho
One of the four quarters of Irri Kingdom.
Edhukwe
One of the four quarters of Irri Kingdom.
Enuru
One of the four quarters. The founding hearth is also remembered as Eneru — the same ground under the older spelling.
A 2017 communique, cited in the later stool dispute, named seven ruling houses eligible for the Odio-Ologbo: Odede, Ojenugwe, Amathovo, Omeze, Uthoakpo, Erue, Okpoto. Other accounts speak of nine ruling houses among eighteen stools. The Omode line performs the installation. Houses and quarters are not the same list.
Festival
Ọmode / Omo-Ode
The clan festival is Ọmode (also written Omode and, in some town pages, Omo-Ode). It commemorates the founder. Processions, drumming and masquerades — locally spoken of as Ese — belong to that calendar. One town history says the last large keeping of the feast was in the early 1980s. The name of the feast is not in doubt. The month still needs the town.
Odio-Ologbo of Irri — the printed roll
Irri does not take the title Ovie. The head is the Odio-Ologbo. A list circulated by town pages gives names and years from 1880. Gaps in that list are left open. This site’s monarchs page of January 2026 still printed Joshua Aghagba. Later reports, including a December 2025 chieftaincy note, name a successor installed on 5 December 2024.
- Abe Ugenuwe — 1880–1900
- Ofe Oto — 1901–1927
- Aze Iluge — 1927–1935
- Utowari Abe — 1935–1942
- Owebo Ofurye — 1945–1955
- Akeni Ofe — 1958–1966
- Otozo Edebe — 1967–1993
- Ovie Sieba — 2001–2014
- Joshua Fe Aghagba (J.F.E. Aghagba, Amathovo I) — 2017–2020 on the town list; still the name on this site’s January 2026 monarchs page. Died before the next installation.
- Simon Wajutome Odhomo, Igbogidi I — installed 5 December 2024, according to town and newspaper notes of 2024–25.
What the town should still send
A photograph of Enuru. The month of Ọmode. A correction to the stool roll. Subject line: Irri history — info@isoko.com.ng.
Come and see
That is what Omo-Ode shouted in the forest. Oleh heard it. Agbon heard it. The daughter towns on the Ase still answer to the name. Follow @IsokoNationNG.
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