THE Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, was moved to tears last week when he visited Ilobu, Erin-Osun in Irepodun Local Government Area of the state, as well as Ifon, in Orolu Local Government Area. He could not imagine the level of destruction he saw in the warring communities. The towns have been practically turned into ghost cities as indigenes and residents have fled in a bid to escape being killed.
With the residents out of sight, houses and other properties became easy targets. It has been reported that properties and personal effects worth over N2billion were destroyed during the clash. To stop the wanton destruction of lives and properties, Adeleke had to impose a 24-hour curfew on the towns. Military men, supported by other law enforcement agencies were invited to quell the needless war between brothers. As at the last count, several lives were lost. In actual fact, the media played a big role in dousing tension as it stopped reporting the number of casualties in order not to inflame passions which could lead to reprisal attacks. In spite of that, more than 30 souls were lost. There were countless empty bullet shells in all the war zones. The most affected seems to be Ilobu, whose residents fled to the boundary of Okinni via Ojutu bridge, a neighbouring town to the warring communities.
Despite the 24-hour curfew, three persons were arrested by security agents with dane guns.
It is doubtful if some of the residents would regain what they have been lost. The devastation was total. As at the last count, over 100,000 residents have been displaced and have now been turned into refugees in their own land. However, following the spread of the crises to Erin Osun, more residents fleeing from the mayhem have moved to Gaa in Ido Osun to escape being caught in the crossfire. Some of the displaced persons also moved into accommodations provided by their relatives in Osogbo, the state capital, with several others reportedly seeking refuge in mosques and churches.
Adeleke had to establish three ‘refugee camps’ in the three affected areas to serve the locals. Nigeria is not at war, but brothers have turned against each other and the result is what is presently happening in Osun State. Many have little or no personal effects left, and the state government would now have to feed and cater for the needs of those that have been displaced due to a needless war.
Ilobu, Ifon, and Erin-Osun are three communities that share boundaries in Irepodun and Orolu local government areas of Osun State. If you are not an indigene of the area, it would be difficult to know where Ilobu, Ifon and Erin-Osun boundaries start or end. Due to trade and social interactions, sons and daughters of Ilobu have fallen in love and have married from Ifon and vice versa. But deep down, there has always been tension among the three warring communities. The source of the tension from time immemorial, has been land.
There are overwhelming archival evidences that support historical facts that the Olufon of Ifon-Orolu Kingdom is the traditional landlord of the entire Irepodun Local Government that consists of Ilobu and Erin. Besides, the Intelligence Report by Assistant District Officer I. F. Schofield dated March 28, 1936 justified the superiority of the Olufon of Ifon-Orolu Kingdom. The earlier proclamation was made on March 24, 1919 by Oba Shiyanbola Oladigbolu, the Alaafin of Oyo, when the issue of demarcation began.
It can never be ignored. Besides, all the 16 kings of Olobu, including the incumbent Oba Ashiru Olatoye Olaniyan, were installed as Baale (district head). Thirteen of them were installed at Ifon by Olufon until when Baale Sanusi Araoye was installed as the Olobu of Ilobu. The incumbent Olobu of Ilobu was initially installed as Baale in 1970, just like all his predecessors, before his recent upgrading and subsequent wearing of beaded crown ceremony in December 13, 1986 by the late Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III; which still did not qualify him as a permanent member of the Oyo State Council of Obas until later, when Osun State was created.
Asides that, there are uncountable archival records dating back to the pre-independence era of Nigeria when the Ibadan Native Administration Inner Council members authoritatively confirmed ‘Olufon of Ifon-Osun as the traditional landlord of Olobu of Ilobu’ during the reign of Oba Alayeluwa Bankeesa Atanda Akinyooye, the 30th Olufon of Ifon-Orolu Kingdom. The State Boundary Commission should have properly been guided and strictly conclude the boundary between Ifon and Ilobu communities based on this. But it rather complicated the matter during the administration of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola when he made a legal notice number 9 of 2014, published in the Osun State of Nigeria Gazette number 1 Volume 24, dated October 13, 2014.
The controversial gazette by the administration of Aregbesola was actually without the consent of Olufon and Orolu people, who are the traditional landlords of both Irepodun and Orolu local government areas. It was based on the same gazette that the people of Ilobu are laying claim to Adara village that accommodate Orolu-South Area Council in Diisu Ayekale, which was created by the same administration in 2015.
However, the spokesman of the Olobu-in-Council, Chief Adegoke Ogunsola, had, on several occasions, given another historical background to the issue of ownership of the disputed land. According to him, “Laarosin, the founder of Ilobu and Olobu stool was the first settler on the vast virgin land known today as Ilobu, Ifon-Osun and Erin-Osun. That was centuries ago. Later, the people of Ibokun, known today as Ileesi and one Oosalokun, the founder of Ifon and Olufon stool, approached Laarosin at different times for land to settle on. Laarosin then granted them land for farming and settlements.
According to him, there was no crisis about land granted them until 1917, when Bankesa Atanda Akinyooye Moronfolu I, Olufon of Ifon-Osun trespassed into a part of Olobu’s land that was not granted to Olufon or Eleesi. In 1830, Ifon-Osun was sacked during Fulani raids on Ilobu farms and settlements. As a result of the Fulani invasion, Olufon approached Olobu for land. The then Olobu granted Ifon people their present site, known then as Boosa. The site where Ifon people were invaded by the Fulani is known today as Ibale, and that is the place they bury any deceased Olufon till date.
In 1917, Oba Onikepe Siyanbola Ladigbolu, the Alaafin of Oyo intervened, but the Olufon and Olobu did not agree on the boundary. In 1918, Alaafin approached the colonial government to intercede. In 1925, the Senior Resident, Oyo Province, Captain William Ross demarcated the boundary, which Olobu accepted. But in 1945, Salawu Oyelade Oluyeyin, the late Olufon, employed a licensed surveyor, one Mr. Gilbert, and through this, he distorted the Ross boundary. Ilobu disagreed and instituted suit number 4/53 at Ikirun Native Court in 1953. The judgement was given in favour of Ilobu.
Olufon appealed case number 4/53 in suit no. 21/55 at Osun Divisional Appeal Court. The appeal was allowed and a different boundary was fixed. Olobu then appealed in Appeal No. 9/1959. The appeal was dismissed. Olobu further appealed in Appeal No. 787 to the Governor’s Court. The Governor, Sir John Rankine, in his judgement on November 18, 1960, said, amongst other things, that it was clearly impossible to fix a complete new boundary that would represent a fair compromise. Thereafter, Olufon and Ifon people instituted a case at the High Court through a Certiorari to quash the decision of the Governor’s Court. The case got to the Supreme Court in suit number S.C. 31/1967.
After the Supreme Court judgement which quashed the proceedings of the Native Courts, the government set up the Enahoro Inquiry under Inter Boundary Settlement Ordinance. One Mr. E.O Enahoro was appointed as inquiry Officer. But Olufon protested government’s action in the suit mentioned above, which got to the Supreme Court in 1967. In 1968, Olufon Salawu Oyelade and people of Ifon referred their dispute over the land to the Boundary Settlement Commission and included Ilobu town as part of their land. The judgement was in favour of Ilobu and Laarosin was adjudged to be the first settler against Olufon’s claim.”
Claims, and counter-claims. Till date, both the people of Ifon and Ilobu have continued to claim ownership of the land with their respective historical evidences. And the history is being passed from generation to generation; hence indigenes of the two towns are determined to defend their land with the last drop of their blood.
In 2023, when the now late Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Taoreed Abiodun Lagbaja, who hails from Ilobu, wanted to build a military hospital in the town, the people of Ifon claimed that the proposed site of the project at Opapa village fell on their land but they were not carried along. Ifon people said that the military men who came from army headquarters to inspect the site paid a courtesy visit on the palace of the Olobu of Ilobu and disregarded the Olufon of Ifon. They insisted that the military could not go ahead with the project. But the people of Ilobu insisted that the land proposed for the project belonged to them. The controversy eventually degenerated into a bloody clash between the people of Ifon and Ilobu. Once a crisis simmers, another would erupt, and the towns have been at each other’s necks over land for over 100 years.
In an attempt to find lasting peace in the area, the Osun State Government early this year, constituted a 100-member panel to find a lasting solution to the incessant land disputes among the warring factions.
The Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Oyetunji, and the Chairman, Osun State Boundary Commission, Justice Moshood Adeigbe, were to lead the 100-member committee. Each of the three affected communities of Ifon, Ilobu, and Erin Osun have 25 representatives, while the state government would equally be represented by 25 members. But the committee has not really achieved much before the latest round of fighting started.
In Nigeria, land administration is governed primarily by the Land Use Act of 1978, and it vests land ownership in the State Governor, who holds it in trust for the people, aiming to facilitate equitable land access and economic development. But the locals equally lay claims to land, hence the war between the two warring communities. It is time for the federal government to move in and find a lasting solution to the crisis between the warring communities. The traditional rulers of those communities should also be called to order as Adeleke has threatened to depose any traditional ruler that is fanning the embers of war in the affected communities. We pray for lasting peace in the three communities.
See you next week.
- Akintunde is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Glittersonline newspaper. His syndicated column, Monday Discourse, appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Mondays.