Itsekiri people
The Itsekiri (also called the Isekiri, iJekri, Itsekri, Ishekiri, or Itsekhiri) are an ethnic group who mainly inhabit Nigeria's Niger Delta area.The area is a key centre of Nigeria's crude oil and natural gas production and petroleum refining and the main town Warri (a multi-ethnic metropolis) forms the industrial and commercial nucleus of the Delta State region.They are most closely related to the South-Eastern and South-South Yorubaland sub-groups - Ijebu, Akure, Ikale, Ilaje, Ondo and Owo, and also Edo, Urhobo and Ijaw.Thus modern day Itsekiris may be the only southern Nigerian ethnic group to be almost totally heterogeneous (mixed) in its genetic composition.[13] The Itsekiri people are an ethnic group with a rich history that dates back almost a thousand years before the founding of the Kingdom of Warri.Once the dominant form of western Christianity in Itsekiriland for centuries, [citation needed][25] only a minority of Itsekiris are Roman Catholics today whilst the majority are Protestants notably Baptist and Anglican.[citation needed] There are a number of semi-autonomous Itsekiri communities such as Ugborodo, koko, Omadino and Obodo whose history predates the 15th-century establishment of the Warri Kingdom.