Warri was once a provincial capital to British rule. The Lagos and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria were formally united as Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria on 28 February 1906 and Walter Egerton was appointed as the Governor of new Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, holding office until 1912. In this new region called Southern Nigeria, the old Lagos Colony became the Western Province, and the former Southern Nigerian Protectorate was split into a Central Province with capital at Warri and an Eastern Province with capital at Calabar.