The original Bille are descendants of proto-Ijo ancient ancestors from the central delta Agadagba-Bou, Isomabou and later Tara (Tarakiri), who left their relatives at a very early stage in the central delta, prior to the 14th century AD.
According to tradition, the ancestors left the central delta to the present Ekpeye Kingdom area, and settled around the present lbuawo Community area.
Further migration took a group of the Bille people to Okolo-Bille, before finally moving to the present site in the eastern Niger delta.
Okolo-Bille also known as Akpata-Bille seems to be the site of dispersal to other areas of the eastern Niger delta.
Thus traditions talk of some founders of Wakirike, such as Opu-Ogulaya (Founder of Ogoloma Kingdom in Okrika Ijaw Clan) having been part of the original ancestral migrations from Isomabou in the central delta, who then dispersed from Okolo-Bille.
The Present Bille was settled from the old Okolo-Bille, being led by a female ancestor referred to as Queen Ikpakiaba. The site of the present Bille was not uninhabited when Queen Ikpakiaba led her people to settle there.
It was also aboriginally settled by proto-Ijos referred to as ‘Water People’ for those who understand ancestral tradition and its mythic language, the term “Water People” refers to the spiritual initiation lodges, mostly to the Supreme intelligence Adumu.
Thus it seems that Adumu lodge initiates were the first Ijo ancestors to settle in the eastern delta coast as maintained by ancestral tradition.
Retelling this tradition, the present Bille site was inhabited by a host of water spirits and water gods (water people). Queen Ikpakiaba made an exploratory expeditions to the site where she descovered that the water people (spiritual initiates) were in a festival playing drums and dancing. When the Chief Priest discovered her, he appreciated her courage. The water people then gave her the permission to occupy the Island alongside with them. Queen Ikpakiaba therefore, further migrated with her people to the present Bille Town – the nucleus of the Bille Kingdom.
In the past Bille has expanded into a small kingdom city state with past leaders such as Agbaniye-Jike many smaller autonomous Ijo towns and villages were conquered and the whole area became part of the Bille Kingdom before the rise of the Kalabari City State, which expanded and eclipsed Bille.
