The Ekiti State Government has ordered the constitution of an expanded committee to resolve the protracted dispute between indigenes of Okemesi-Ekiti and Ikoro-Ekiti over ownership of land in Ajindo.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) also reports that the government also admonished the people in the two communities to maintain the peace and refrain from acts capable of escalating tension or possible bloodshed.
The Deputy Governor, Mrs Monisade Afuye, gave the warning during a peace parley with stakeholders from the two towns on Thursday in Ado-Ekiti.
Afuye directed each of the towns to nominate five members into the committee headed by
Mr Abayomi Opeyemi, Permanent Secretary, Office of the Deputy Governor.
Other members include; the Solicitor General and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, Mr Sunday Bamise, Surveyor General of Ekiti State, Mr Adebayo Faleto, Secretary of Boundary Commission, Mr Olalekan Olajide, among others.
She appealed to members of the committee to handle the matter with transparency.
The intervention was sequel to the petition by Olukoro of Ikoro-Ekiti, Oba Adebanji Adeleye,
who had alleged the people of Okemesi of flouting the 1978 Supreme Court judgment, which awarded ownership of Ajindo Village to Ikoro town, and ordered Okemesi to pay rent to the owners.
In the petition, Oba Adeleye appealed to the state government to order Owa Ooye, Oba Adedeji Gbadebo to comply with the court’s verdict.
Presenting their cases at the parley, Olukoro, who spoke via the former Health Commissioner, Dr Femi Thomas, said the Supreme Court judgement of 1978 revealed that the residents of Ajindo were Okemesi people, but the land belongs to Ikoro town.
Adeleye said it was on that basis that the court directed Okemesi to pay rent to the owners of the land, which the traditional ruler said the people had stoutly been defied.
Subsequently, the traditional ruler demanded that all the schools, health facilities and residents in Ajindo Village should be placed under Eso Obe Local Council Development Area, with headquarters in Ikoro-Ekiti.
“The most traumatising was the fact that Ikoro indigenes were being harassed on their own land.
“We are not averse to having a robust round table discussion on this matter because the hostility must stop.
“We are not enemies, but the right thing must be done.
“We are not going to evict anyone from that land, but the right thing must be done by government”, Adeleye said.
Responding, Oba Adedeji Gbadebo said that he only heard about the Supreme Court’s judgment and the petition written to government, but was not availed copies of the documents to respond to appropriately.
Oba Gbadebo, who traced the trajectory of the land dispute to 1961, shortly after Nigerian Independence, stated that there wasn’t any hostility between the two towns and that the current land dispute won’t be allowed to throw a spanner in the wheel of their relationship.
However, in the report dated Jan. 15, 2024, provided by Okemesi-Ekiti and read at the meeting by Chief Goke Omidiran, Oba Gbadebo, said Okemesi-Ekiti for over a century had been installing the Olu of Ajindo and nobody from Ikoro-Ekiti had ever contested this traditional entitlement.
He opposed the request by the Olukoro that Ajindo village should be ceeded to Eso- Obe LCDA, saying this was not contained in the supreme Court judgement and that the state government that created that council has not made such pronouncement.
Gbadebo added that Yoruba history allows for mobility, resettlement and full assimilation of persons, adding that this shouldn’t be a reason for people to pay rent on a land they have settled on for over 350 years.
“We disagree to our people paying rent generally, but I want to say that those who fall on the portion of the land that belongs to Ikoro-Ekiti should pay rent.
“And I have evidence that they have been paying rent up to date.
“Wars had been fought on this land, lives and properties had been lost, so there must be demarcation and the government must do that to avoid conflict.
“Whatever happens, we are ready for peace. We are ready to join the Ikoro people for amicable resolution of this crisis”, Gbadebo said