Britain had announced, after the Berlin Conference,…

Britain had announced, after the Berlin Conference, the  formation of the Oil Rivers Protectorate, which includes the Niger Delta and extends eastward to Calabar, where the British consulate general had been relocated from Fernando Po.

The essential purpose of the protectorate is to control trade coming down the Niger.

Vice consuls are assigned to ports that already have concluded treaties of cooperation with the Foreign Office.

Local rulers continue to administer their territories, but consular authorities assume jurisdiction for the equity courts established earlier by the foreign mercantile communities.

A constabulary force is raised and used to pacify the coastal area.

In 1894 the territory is redesignated the Niger Coast Protectorate and is expanded to include the region from Cala- bar to Lagos Colony and Protectorate, including the hinterland, and northward up the Niger River as far as Lokoja, the headquar- ters of the Royal Niger Company. As a protectorate, it did not have the status of a colony but remained under the jurisdiction of the Foreign Office.