Kontagora

Kontagora is a major town on the south bank of the Kontagora River in north-west Niger State, Nigeria, and the capital of the Kontagora Emirate. According to the Wikipedia article it was founded by Umaru Nagwamatse, who conquered a large amount of land held by the non-Muslim Kambari people and set Kontagora up as the capital of his kingdom in 1864, making himself its first emir. His son Ibrahim Nagwamatse became emir in 1880, and under him the emirate became notorious for slave raids that left the surrounding country badly under-populated, with many abandoned villages. Ibrahim captured Birnin Gwari in 1899, which brought the emirate of Zaria into conflict with him and drew in the British, who took Kontagora in 1901. When he was reinstated as emir in 1903 his power was greatly reduced. In religious terms, the Roman Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of Kontagora was established here on 15 December 1995, with the cathedral of St Michael as the seat of the apostolic vicar. The former Niger State governor Abubakar Sani Bello comes from Kontagora. GeoNames lists the town as the seat of its local government area, with 98,754 people.