On May 1, 1945, Attah Ameh Oboni, a renowned traditional leader, took the throne of Igala country. Attah Oboni’s reign was exceptional and more historic than that of any of his predecessors, surpassing only that of Ayegba Om’Idoko, the legendary old king of Igala land who struggled to preserve the independence of his Kingdom.
Alami Inedu, an Itobe native who was married off to three succeeding rulers, was his mother; Attah Oboni was the only kid to be born from her unions. Soon after he was born in 1911, his father passed away.
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Attah Oboni promoted the development agenda that enhanced the caliber of education, infrastructure, basic necessities, and social intervention programs for vulnerable people in Igala despite having little access to formal schooling.
His Royal Highness was a strong leader who exuded mystery to his subjects. Though historians and later generations are fascinated by the legends surrounding his reign as well as the way he disobeyed the Queen of England when instructed by the council of rulers to break the rules of his throne, it is generally accepted that everything he prophesied came to fruition.
In Igala society, it was abominable for any king to gaze upon a corpse or a child who was younger than three months old. It was also improper for him to approach a woman and shake her hand in public. Attah Oboni was urged to go against the later forbidding ethics when he met the Queen of England in a meeting conducted in Kaduna, which was against these conventions.
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Before greeting the Queen, he was made to take off his cap by the paramount rulers, as others had done earlier. The Igala ruler’s situation was made worse by the fact that he was instructed to remove his cap before shaking the Queen’s hand. He was threatened with being booted out of the meeting when he refused to make a concession. In an effort to elevate his cap, Attah Oboni accidentally let a swarm of bees into the conference space, warning the council of rulers that disaster could befall them as a result of the attitude they had adopted. This sparked a commotion, and the Queen’s handlers snatched her up right away.
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The Oba of Benin was the only ruler who was permitted to remain in the room. The Igala ruler was imprisoned by the authorities when they felt humiliated; yet, interestingly, oral tradition claims that the handcuffs slid off his hands shortly after he was taken into custody. Despite his magical performance, his fellow traditional rulers resorted to holding him as a prisoner, which infuriated the Igala ruler and caused him to flee arrest without anyone being able to explain how he did it. This humiliation gave the Queen and the rulers of the Northern kingdom of Nigeria a reason to swiftly plot his removal.
As a result, he was eventually removed from power, but not without consequences. Once their body parts gradually deteriorated, the people who carried out the scheme to have him removed from power were buried three times. He stated that the community will only be reunited if a son from his line ascends to the throne and cursed the country of the Igala before taking his own life. Before Yahaya Bello, the governor, lifted the embargo in response to the Attah Igala’s requests, Igala festivities had been outlawed for more than 60 years.
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