April 9, 2010
The flight of Oba Lateef Akanni, the controversial Olofin of Ado-Odo from his throne as reported in the Saturday Sun of 2nd April was a culmination of city-wide protests and a final demonstration of his unacceptability to the people of Ado-Odo in Ogun State. The last indisputable Olofin of Ado-Odo, His Royal Highness Oba Jacob Akapo died on the 20th March, 1987.
The flight of Oba Lateef Akanni, the controversial Olofin of Ado-Odo from his throne as reported in the Saturday Sun of 2nd April was a culmination of city-wide protests and a final demonstration of his unacceptability to the people of Ado-Odo in Ogun State. The last indisputable Olofin of Ado-Odo, His Royal Highness Oba Jacob Akapo died on the 20th March, 1987.
The initial attempts to fill the vacant throne met with disagreement within the Idobarun ruling house, the traditionally accepted clan whose turn it was to produce the next Olofin. While it appeared the town and the kingmakers had settled for a nominee, Prince Muniru Odejide, a legal tussle had ensued which ultimately favoured Akanni as the legitimate Olofin-elect: The Ogun State government adhered to a supreme court judgement by presenting the staff of office to the latter at a coronation ceremony on May 2nd, 2009, over 20 years after the demise of Oba Akapo.
Cautious optimism was the mood in the air as Akanni assumed the throne. There had been widespread rumours on surreptitious plans by the Akanni camp to embark on some form of ethnic cleansing which was intended to economically polarize the town against the Ogus.
As at 1956 when colonial authorities mapped Ado-Odo as a town, over 7 quarters: Oke Ijana, Odo Ijana, Imasayi, Ishaga, Oke osi, Odo osi and Imeko had been in existence. The town had developed ever since with the emergence of Abiyo, Oke oyinbo, Oke Padre and expanding continuously into the adjoining predominantly Ogu communities of Jigbo, Jomo, Gbekon, Agboku, Leji, Ayede, Obakobe, Kason and other communities. Ado Odo was part of Egbado South Local Government in the 70's and in the 80's, Ado Odo was the headquarters and home to the secretariat of the then Ado-Odo/Igbesa Local Government. It was a sign of political relegation that Ado-Odo, Ere, Igbesa, Agbara, Atan, Alapoti, Iju, Sango, Ota up to Alakuko boundary of Lagos state were merged to form one of the most populous and largest local governments in Nigeria. This of course took away government and all it represents farther away from Ado-Odo.
Ado-Odo with its environs is made up of various Yoruba sub-ethnic groups (Awori, Isaga, Imasai etc) and the Ogu (Eguns). While the Ogu are minorities in Ogun and Lagos States, there is no love lost between them and a section of the Aworis with the latter’s held beliefs that the former are non-indigenes, slaves or settlers be it in Ipokia, Ado-Odo/Ota or Badagry Local Governments. A section of the Aworis in Ado-Odo, while admitting that they migrated to the current Ado-Odo, believes they arrived before every other tribe or ethnic group and as such in addition to their entitlement to the throne, they also plan to claim ownership of all the landed properties in the kingdom. This false theory being propagated further wishes to sell the idea that the Ogu people are from Benin republic considering the contiguity of their communities with Benin, and their close traditional and cultural ties with the Ogu of Benin Republic. This theory attempts to portray the minority status of the Ogu as a reason to force them into Benin Republic not minding the fact of the pre-colonial mapping that carved them from their kith and kin across the border. They are however not bothered about the remnants of Yorubas, of Ketuland in Benin Republic who share similar mapping out of Nigeria even though they are not settlers but had their communities splintered between Benin and Nigeria. They have always been there with a peaceful kingdom under the Obaship of Alaketu of Ketuland with no threat from the Majority Ogus surrounding them in Benin Republic. The plan intends to cut Ogu communities of Ado-Odo from Ogun State into Lagos State, should the trans-border evacuation plot fail. This is in the hope that the vast land of the Ogus will be inherited by this section of the Awori revisionists. According to them, the inhabitants need not be Nigerians but the land must be.
This section of Aworis in Ado-Odo, although in the minority, appear to have recruited Oba Akanni into their fold. The people of Ado-Odo and the surrounding Ogu communities have always lived together in peace in exception to the occasional harassment from this camp whose leader has been one Benjamin Adekunle. The direction of the Obaship of Akanni became obvious to the people of Ado-Odo following his courtship with this controversial Benjamin Adekunle, who believes he is the landlord of all the Ogu in Nigeria, and generously financed by one Buhari Oloto resident in Lagos. According to claims, while the majority of Ado-Odo people do not buy into the ethnic superiority idea of this section of Awori people, Oba Akanni was easily bought into the camp as these financiers of his court litigations had banked on acquiring all the Ogu-owned land with the palace authority as compensation for their support, which would also help the Oba to offset outstanding debts that he incurred in the course of his over 15 year legal tussle.
Their first target community among the Ogu was Tilee (pronounced Itire by the Aworis). Tilee is an Ogu community bordering Javie, Badagry. Within this community is a village made up of about three mud buildings where an agrarian Awori family resides. The family has been there for a long time and it has its farm among those of Ogu people. The first salvo was served the Tilee community by people suspected to be fronting for the Akanni faction of the Aworis in Ado-Odo. They came up with a theory that the Community belongs to the Aworis and the village of the farming Awori family is the precursory home of the Itire town in Lagos State. By extension, Tilee community belongs to the Aworis and the farming village is the landlord to all the other villages and settlements in the community. Some strange faces suspected to be hired thugs from Ado-Odo and Lagos were reported to often parade the villages molesting passers-by and residents. Few days after this unusual observation, a letter, purportedly originating from the palace of the Olofin of Ado-Odo was circulated to the Ogu communities by these strange fellows claiming that a court had handed over the community to the Aworis of Ado-Odo and that all the Ogu people should vacate their homes. About a week after this (sometime in October 2009), what was claimed to be notices of evacuation was pasted on building walls, trees and polls around the community asking the Ogu people to relocate to Benin Republic or Badagry to avert some pending ‘operation’. The unsigned notices claimed to have the authority of the Olofin of Ado-odo, Oba Lateef Akanni.
This was immediately followed by invasion and attacks on all the Ogu villages in Tilee by hired thugs leading to destruction of houses and properties. At the end of the ensuing fracas, five people were allegedly missing with many left injured. With rising tension and the intervention of the other Ogu communities including HRH Aholu Babatunde Akran, the Menutoyi of Badagry and the Nigerian Police from Ado-odo, some peace returned to the community. The Olofin of Ado-Odo went to media houses issuing a disclaimer to the evacuation notices while a faceless Awori People’s Congress also issued a public disclaimer of the circulated notices.
While this lasted, the Awori faction led by Benjamin Adekunle and others have invaded the Ogu owned land and plantations in Agboku, Idolehin, Kason and others. Following a petition written to the speaker, Ogun State House of Assembly by the Ogu Forum, the House of Assembly had summoned the Olofin, the Divisional Police Officer of Ado-Odo and the petitioners. The petitioners were represented by Pa Pesu Agogo, Dr Senayon Ola-Oluwa, Mr Hunge, Mr Patrick Avoseh, Mr Segun Agemo and a few others. From the palace was the Olofin himself, his secretary Morufu Ajibade, Mr Benjamin Adekunle and Mr Tokunbo Akinsowon while the DPO was in attendance with one other police officer. The speaker of the House of Assembly reportedly prevailed on both parties to let peace reign in the kingdom. Success at subsequent meetings in the palace with the Olofin have been reported to be scuttled by the Oba himself who has insisted that all Ogu-owned land be divided between the Ogus and Aworis in an obvious betrayal of his underhand dealings and other sundry sinister biased moves. With this betrayal of trust, observers are sufficiently convinced that Akanni has a script to act, the end of which is ethnic cleansing and dispossession of the Ogus of their homes and landed properties.
Oba Lateef Akanni has grossly disappointed many people who saw him as the new hope that enveloped Ado-Odo when he ascended the throne less than a year ago. In a published article, one Pius Fasinu (who obviously had a poor discernment of the unfolding development) had counselled the Oba. In his words ‘Above all, the ability to maintain and sustain the current peace and cohesion among the various ethnicities- Awori, Ogu, Ishaga, Imashai and others in this kingdom will spike up the success rating of Kabiyes's time’. This appears to be the most unheeded advice on the part of Oba Akanni. While he was expected to extend the olive branch to the faction which contended the throne with him and bring peace to the ancient town, Akanni has partitioned Ado-Odo into many factions where lawlessness is glaring. It is worse in the Ogu communities where people go to bed in fear of some thugs who often raid the communities and their properties. The Ogu people have revived their markets in Arigo Ere and Idolehin in an unprecedented move that has successfully paralyzed commercial activities in Agunloye market of Ado-Odo. The fraternity of the Ogus of Ado-Odo with their kith and kin of Koga Zebe and Badagry has further reportedly encouraged the Akanni group as part of their original plan is to push the Ogus out of Ogun State to Badagry where their dominance is not questioned. To those outside of the state, it is worth noting that the Ogu, although a minority in Ogun and Lagos, have always been part of the two states. The current State PDP chairman in Lagos State, Honourable Setonji Koshoedo, the current deputy governor of Ogun State, Alhaja Makanjuola Badru and the Majority leader of the Ogun State House of Assembly Honourable Micheal Sewedo Fasinu are all Ogu. And Akanni and those around him will do themselves and their community no good in their attempt to re-write history and entrench new hegemonies in a town that once boasted of peaceful cohabitation among people of diverse backgrounds.
Sunday Minasu writes from Ere, Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area, Ogun State, Nigeria.
[email protected]
The initial attempts to fill the vacant throne met with disagreement within the Idobarun ruling house, the traditionally accepted clan whose turn it was to produce the next Olofin. While it appeared the town and the kingmakers had settled for a nominee, Prince Muniru Odejide, a legal tussle had ensued which ultimately favoured Akanni as the legitimate Olofin-elect: The Ogun State government adhered to a supreme court judgement by presenting the staff of office to the latter at a coronation ceremony on May 2nd, 2009, over 20 years after the demise of Oba Akapo.
Cautious optimism was the mood in the air as Akanni assumed the throne. There had been widespread rumours on surreptitious plans by the Akanni camp to embark on some form of ethnic cleansing which was intended to economically polarize the town against the Ogus.
As at 1956 when colonial authorities mapped Ado-Odo as a town, over 7 quarters: Oke Ijana, Odo Ijana, Imasayi, Ishaga, Oke osi, Odo osi and Imeko had been in existence. The town had developed ever since with the emergence of Abiyo, Oke oyinbo, Oke Padre and expanding continuously into the adjoining predominantly Ogu communities of Jigbo, Jomo, Gbekon, Agboku, Leji, Ayede, Obakobe, Kason and other communities. Ado Odo was part of Egbado South Local Government in the 70's and in the 80's, Ado Odo was the headquarters and home to the secretariat of the then Ado-Odo/Igbesa Local Government. It was a sign of political relegation that Ado-Odo, Ere, Igbesa, Agbara, Atan, Alapoti, Iju, Sango, Ota up to Alakuko boundary of Lagos state were merged to form one of the most populous and largest local governments in Nigeria. This of course took away government and all it represents farther away from Ado-Odo.
Ado-Odo with its environs is made up of various Yoruba sub-ethnic groups (Awori, Isaga, Imasai etc) and the Ogu (Eguns). While the Ogu are minorities in Ogun and Lagos States, there is no love lost between them and a section of the Aworis with the latter’s held beliefs that the former are non-indigenes, slaves or settlers be it in Ipokia, Ado-Odo/Ota or Badagry Local Governments. A section of the Aworis in Ado-Odo, while admitting that they migrated to the current Ado-Odo, believes they arrived before every other tribe or ethnic group and as such in addition to their entitlement to the throne, they also plan to claim ownership of all the landed properties in the kingdom. This false theory being propagated further wishes to sell the idea that the Ogu people are from Benin republic considering the contiguity of their communities with Benin, and their close traditional and cultural ties with the Ogu of Benin Republic. This theory attempts to portray the minority status of the Ogu as a reason to force them into Benin Republic not minding the fact of the pre-colonial mapping that carved them from their kith and kin across the border. They are however not bothered about the remnants of Yorubas, of Ketuland in Benin Republic who share similar mapping out of Nigeria even though they are not settlers but had their communities splintered between Benin and Nigeria. They have always been there with a peaceful kingdom under the Obaship of Alaketu of Ketuland with no threat from the Majority Ogus surrounding them in Benin Republic. The plan intends to cut Ogu communities of Ado-Odo from Ogun State into Lagos State, should the trans-border evacuation plot fail. This is in the hope that the vast land of the Ogus will be inherited by this section of the Awori revisionists. According to them, the inhabitants need not be Nigerians but the land must be.
This section of Aworis in Ado-Odo, although in the minority, appear to have recruited Oba Akanni into their fold. The people of Ado-Odo and the surrounding Ogu communities have always lived together in peace in exception to the occasional harassment from this camp whose leader has been one Benjamin Adekunle. The direction of the Obaship of Akanni became obvious to the people of Ado-Odo following his courtship with this controversial Benjamin Adekunle, who believes he is the landlord of all the Ogu in Nigeria, and generously financed by one Buhari Oloto resident in Lagos. According to claims, while the majority of Ado-Odo people do not buy into the ethnic superiority idea of this section of Awori people, Oba Akanni was easily bought into the camp as these financiers of his court litigations had banked on acquiring all the Ogu-owned land with the palace authority as compensation for their support, which would also help the Oba to offset outstanding debts that he incurred in the course of his over 15 year legal tussle.
Their first target community among the Ogu was Tilee (pronounced Itire by the Aworis). Tilee is an Ogu community bordering Javie, Badagry. Within this community is a village made up of about three mud buildings where an agrarian Awori family resides. The family has been there for a long time and it has its farm among those of Ogu people. The first salvo was served the Tilee community by people suspected to be fronting for the Akanni faction of the Aworis in Ado-Odo. They came up with a theory that the Community belongs to the Aworis and the village of the farming Awori family is the precursory home of the Itire town in Lagos State. By extension, Tilee community belongs to the Aworis and the farming village is the landlord to all the other villages and settlements in the community. Some strange faces suspected to be hired thugs from Ado-Odo and Lagos were reported to often parade the villages molesting passers-by and residents. Few days after this unusual observation, a letter, purportedly originating from the palace of the Olofin of Ado-Odo was circulated to the Ogu communities by these strange fellows claiming that a court had handed over the community to the Aworis of Ado-Odo and that all the Ogu people should vacate their homes. About a week after this (sometime in October 2009), what was claimed to be notices of evacuation was pasted on building walls, trees and polls around the community asking the Ogu people to relocate to Benin Republic or Badagry to avert some pending ‘operation’. The unsigned notices claimed to have the authority of the Olofin of Ado-odo, Oba Lateef Akanni.
This was immediately followed by invasion and attacks on all the Ogu villages in Tilee by hired thugs leading to destruction of houses and properties. At the end of the ensuing fracas, five people were allegedly missing with many left injured. With rising tension and the intervention of the other Ogu communities including HRH Aholu Babatunde Akran, the Menutoyi of Badagry and the Nigerian Police from Ado-odo, some peace returned to the community. The Olofin of Ado-Odo went to media houses issuing a disclaimer to the evacuation notices while a faceless Awori People’s Congress also issued a public disclaimer of the circulated notices.
While this lasted, the Awori faction led by Benjamin Adekunle and others have invaded the Ogu owned land and plantations in Agboku, Idolehin, Kason and others. Following a petition written to the speaker, Ogun State House of Assembly by the Ogu Forum, the House of Assembly had summoned the Olofin, the Divisional Police Officer of Ado-Odo and the petitioners. The petitioners were represented by Pa Pesu Agogo, Dr Senayon Ola-Oluwa, Mr Hunge, Mr Patrick Avoseh, Mr Segun Agemo and a few others. From the palace was the Olofin himself, his secretary Morufu Ajibade, Mr Benjamin Adekunle and Mr Tokunbo Akinsowon while the DPO was in attendance with one other police officer. The speaker of the House of Assembly reportedly prevailed on both parties to let peace reign in the kingdom. Success at subsequent meetings in the palace with the Olofin have been reported to be scuttled by the Oba himself who has insisted that all Ogu-owned land be divided between the Ogus and Aworis in an obvious betrayal of his underhand dealings and other sundry sinister biased moves. With this betrayal of trust, observers are sufficiently convinced that Akanni has a script to act, the end of which is ethnic cleansing and dispossession of the Ogus of their homes and landed properties.
Oba Lateef Akanni has grossly disappointed many people who saw him as the new hope that enveloped Ado-Odo when he ascended the throne less than a year ago. In a published article, one Pius Fasinu (who obviously had a poor discernment of the unfolding development) had counselled the Oba. In his words ‘Above all, the ability to maintain and sustain the current peace and cohesion among the various ethnicities- Awori, Ogu, Ishaga, Imashai and others in this kingdom will spike up the success rating of Kabiyes's time’. This appears to be the most unheeded advice on the part of Oba Akanni. While he was expected to extend the olive branch to the faction which contended the throne with him and bring peace to the ancient town, Akanni has partitioned Ado-Odo into many factions where lawlessness is glaring. It is worse in the Ogu communities where people go to bed in fear of some thugs who often raid the communities and their properties. The Ogu people have revived their markets in Arigo Ere and Idolehin in an unprecedented move that has successfully paralyzed commercial activities in Agunloye market of Ado-Odo. The fraternity of the Ogus of Ado-Odo with their kith and kin of Koga Zebe and Badagry has further reportedly encouraged the Akanni group as part of their original plan is to push the Ogus out of Ogun State to Badagry where their dominance is not questioned. To those outside of the state, it is worth noting that the Ogu, although a minority in Ogun and Lagos, have always been part of the two states. The current State PDP chairman in Lagos State, Honourable Setonji Koshoedo, the current deputy governor of Ogun State, Alhaja Makanjuola Badru and the Majority leader of the Ogun State House of Assembly Honourable Micheal Sewedo Fasinu are all Ogu. And Akanni and those around him will do themselves and their community no good in their attempt to re-write history and entrench new hegemonies in a town that once boasted of peaceful cohabitation among people of diverse backgrounds.
Sunday Minasu writes from Ere, Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area, Ogun State, Nigeria.
[email protected]
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