Oral tradition have it that Bassan clan like any other Ijaw clan came from the East. But it secondary movement is Ogobiri.
The Secondary Movement
The Bassan clan move together with 2 other clans in the same wave moving down stream of the nun river through the Acade or Osiama creek and entered the new known Apoi creek. The other two clans in wave were the Apoi clan lead by Apoi and the Egbema lead by Egbe and the Bassan clan lead by Ogunu. Entering the Apoi creek, the 1st to settle was Egbe, the leader of the Egbema clan. He settled at the present Ogboinbiri site and later moved in land to settle at Okatiama near the present or in the vicinity of Azagbem lagoons. The lagoons are abundant with fishes and mangrove woods for the preparation of boiling native salt. Ogunu and Apoi moved southwards of that creek. Apoi was the 2nd to settle at the Apoi site. In the Apoi group, there were 5 leaders accounting for 5 compounds. Here Ogunu settled briefly with him. During his stay Ogunu went to explone the down stream and found a suitable place called Orufropa surrounded by three big lagoons namely Okeletobu, Oluotobou and Oputubou which is called Lobia today. The Ogunu father is named Furu and Ogunu designated the name of this settlement to his father Furu. The meaning of Bassan is open place.
The Bassan kingdom though having meaning settlements is one of the rare cases in which there are no coherent traditions or common origin. Each settlement having entered the area from a different ancestral home.
According to one informant, Chief J.T.T. Alamene Koloama is from Ossiama in Oyaikiri kingdom, Furupa in Ogoibiri, Ekeni in the Kalabari, Ezetu in Oporoma, Okparatobuo in Amassoma, Lobia in Okpoma, Ukubie in Itsekiri in Warri, Azozama offshoot of Lobia. The composition of Bassan clan is unigue because of the heterogeneous composition.
The nearest group in the Bassan kingdom is the Tubo union. The Tubo union is described as the towns that eat anything from each other’. The Tubo was a cultural and economic union for peaceful co-existence of the members and exploitation of the resources of the mangrove swamps and creeks. The communities that make up the Tubo are Furupa, Lobia Ukubie and Azuzuama.
In the Tubo Union, when a Chief dies, oral tradition has it that the four communities mourn him for three months. Interestingly, when a Chief dies in Lobia for example, his mourning commences, but if before the three months another Chief dies in and of the Tubo Union, the mourning of the Lobia Chiefs stops for the latter to start which means that it is only one Chief that is mourn at a time. During the burial of Chiefs in the union, there is the proclamation called “Gbako”. There is also the “Yado privilege” among the Tubo union, that is a woman slave bought by any of these four communities has the privilege to abuse anybody in the Tubo. All these four villages has the same mask head excepting Ukubie which plays “Igolo and Ekperekpete” which there inherited from the Itsekiri marriage system.