In 2017 the district celebrated fifty years of the Rivers Area, inaugurated in 1967 out of the then Southern Igboland District.
From one administrative unit, the Rivers Area has given birth to thirteen other districts, from Ahoada and Ikwerre to Bayelsa, Bonny and Northern Rivers. Four leaders carried the work through those fifty years: Rev. Ogbe U. Dudu, Rev. J. J. G. Nedom, Rev. Evang. Peter E. Taylor and Rev. Dr. Daddy D. S. Ibulubo.