Arthur Prest

Who was Arthur Prest?

Chief Arthur Edward Prest was an Itsekiri politician of mixed heritage from the Warri division of southern Nigeria. He was an officer of the Nigerian police force prior to his nomination as a representative of the Warri district in the Western Regional House of Assembly. In 1951, he declared his support for the Action Group and was later made regional minister at Ibadan, he was subsequently appointed federal minister for communications in 1952.

He left the Action Group in 1957.

In 1971, he was involved in a prominent court case. Then, he challenged the Itsekiri Communal Lands Trust which wanted to use the purported overlord rights of the Olu of Warri over lands in Warri. The overlord rights would have given the trust indirect ownership of all lands including overriding the rights of ownership of landlords. However, the communal lands trust lost the case.