Nana Olomu

Nana Olomu was born around 1852 in Jakpa, Delta State, to Olomu, a wealthy Itsekiri trader. Inheriting his father's vast fleet of trading war canoes and commercial networks, he was appointed Governor of the Benin River by British colonial authorities in 1884, serving as the supreme indigenous authority controlling trade in palm oil, rubber, and timber.

Headquartered at his fortified capital of Brohimie, deep in the mangrove swamps, Nana resisted British attempts to bypass coastal middlemen and impose punitive customs duties. In 1894, the British military launched a massive amphibious assault with gunboats and royal marines against Brohimie. After heroic resistance, Nana was defeated, captured, and exiled to the Gold Coast for twelve years. Allowed to return in 1906, he spent his remaining days in Koko, leaving a legacy of defiant indigenous enterprise.