Attah Ameh Oboni, Nigerian King of Ijala Refuses for Bow to Queen Elizabeth & was betrayed
Below in this page, we have the history of a Nigerian King, Attah Ameh Oboni who is popularly known for his refusal to bow down to Queen of England and was later betrayed by his People.
King Attah Ameh Oboni was a very popular and one of the most recognized Nigerian king. He was the 27th Ara of Igala Kingdom who was born in 1948 in Idah Kogi State Nigeria.
You might know King Attah from one of the stories told that he was the king who chose Suicide Instead of Bowing to the Queen of England but that’s not exactly how the story goes, so keep on reading below to find out everything.
King Attah Ameh Oboni and Queen Elizabeth of England
According to history, it was known that the king of Igale does not remove it’s cap to anybody as it was considered a taboo and in a meeting held in Kaduna which invited all the paramount traditional rulers in Nigeria and the Queen of England who was Elizabeth II at the time was at the meeting.
There, all the king’s removes their caps and honored the queen whole bowing but king Attah Ameh refused to remove his cap to greet the Queen of England and it became a problem.
He insisted on not removing his cap that it’s against the tradition and he was asked to leave the meeting if he would not remove his cap.
You should know that it was a big taboo for Attah to remove his cap in the public but eventually he did removed his King cap and immediately, bees swam the hall of the meeting coming out from under his hat and this caused commotion in the midst of all the big king’s including queen Elizabeth who ran to safety after King attah removed his cap.
According to history, it was only one ruler, the Oba of Benin who left the hall before he could remove his cap as attah told him to leave and the bee incident cause harm to many as many was stung by the bees and the security was ordered to arrest Attah Ameh Oboni and handcuffed but the handcuffs fell off his hands.
The ruler locked Attah Ameh oboni up in a room and he was guarded by security personnel but he disappeared from the room where he was locked up.
I know it sound insane but history says that Ameh Oboni told his driver, Amanabo of blessed memory, drive the car to Idah when he was locked up, warning him not to look back while driving until he felt a cool breeze in the car and that what Amanabo did even though he argued at first that he can’t leave Attah there but later obeyed.
Amanabo drove to Idah from Kaduna and on the way after he felt the cool breeze in the car, Attah Ameh was sitted inside the car.
Now that you know about the King Attah and queen Elizabeth incident, you can understand where the hatred and plot against the great king of Igala started as many ruler most have been angry, jealous of him and maybe want him dead this leading to the plot and allegations against him which turns out false but already late.
The meeting incident ended chaotic and left many of the northern traditional rulers angry and this also includes the queen of England and history says that these rulers looks and plot on how to remove Attah Ameh from the throne since he was getting tougher and uncontrollable like others.
In this mission too, a man was also appointed to replace the king after he’s been removed and it was during the popular Igala cultural festival called Ocho that was used against King Attah.
Ocho was a very popular and cultural feast in Igala which is celebrated in the wild bush at a location called Ere-Ocho, in a community called Ogo-Efa.
This feast of Ocho is done before farming starts where the people and King’s use the feast to pray to Go for rain for farming and King Attah in this festival prays to God for sufficient rainfall, a bountiful harvest, and success in hunting for the kingdom.
At Ere-ocho, Attah will hunt until he kills a Buffalo or a strong animal and with that, he will preform a sacrifice to the ancestors using a fowl. With the sacrifice and festival of Ocho, the king will find out if there will blessings or problems in the land.
The Betrayal and Death of King Attah Ameh of igala.
After the Ocho festival to that season or maybe bfoe the festival, my guess is that the betrayed of the king among his people has already grew and many says that his enemies at home (among the Igala people), was bribed of have connections with the leaders of the northern region of Nigeria at that time and help to betray king Attah.
These enemies was for evidence either true or false which can be used to remove him from the throne and they used the sacrifice of blood by King Attah for the Ocho Festival and reported to the throne, The Queen of England that King Attah used human for sacrifice.
The blood of the animal used as a sacrifice at Ocho ground was used against him and a petition was written by two Igala people to the Queen and some other Northern leaders that Attah Ameh was sacrificing humans during the Ocho festivals.
This petitions was start of the fall of the great king or maybe the refusal to bow o the queen and releasing of the bees was the start at he has hated by maybe the royal family as well as maybe the throne wanted him replace as the judgment was quickly passed that he must be dethroned, even though investigations were not yet concluded.
As the dethroned ruling of King Attah was passed was also the order to ban the popular Ocho igala Festival until recently when Governor Yahaya Bello removed this ban after the Current Ittah of Igala, Matthew Opaluwa appeal for the case, but the ban of the Ocho cultural Festival remained for almost 63 years.
At this time, the king know about the dethroned by the British royal family and his banishment from Benin and he cannot do anything to change it including using a spiritual means so knew he was done for and at same time, the result of the blood sample was taken from the Ocho venue and taken to the University of Ibadan for analysis.
But before with blood analysis result has arrived proved that it was the blood of an animal and not a human, the revered King, Attah Ameh had been declared dead.
This was before the result was brought that King Attah Ameh, who was unsure of the accusations frame up by his enemies committed suicide but before that, it was reported that he allegedly quoted that the person who wrote the petition against him would have that hand dried up, and that the leader of the gang or petitioners would be buried three times.
His quote and curses to his enemies was said to come to pass as the hand of the person who wrote the petition dried as said and the other was buried three time firstly with the leg buried and then the hand and the body third buried all in different locations as stated before he took his life.
Also, after news of this dethronement flawed the Kingdom, it reached him in a meeting and he traveled back to Idah, to prepare to leave the throne and stopped on the way to another Igala land called Dekina and he committed suicide there.
Also, history has it that before his death he noted that Dekina will be popular but its development will not be as much as its popularity and also noted the Igala will have know peace and won’t be United until the reign of his own blood (son) as Attah which will now unite all the igala people no matter the location.
To conclude this amazing story, the new Attah Igala is, Mathew Opaluwa who is the 28th Attah Igala and takes over from HRM Ameh Oboni and the reunification of Igala people is also coming through with the son also the new ruler of Igala.
Proudly written by OGE EBUBE KINGSLEY, COPYRIGHT OGE LALA BUSINESS CONCEPT 2023.
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