A socio-political group in Oyo town that advocates for the development and progress of the town, Oyo Metropolitan Development Association, convened a town hall meeting yesterday to addresss salient issues bothering the development of the town.
The meeting held at the Oyo town Hall lasted for about four hours and the highlight of the meeting was the controversies concerning the creation of the LCDAs.
Here is the press release issued by the association;
OUR POSITION ON THE ISSUE OF CEDING OF OYO LAND TO OTHER LCDAs
a. We
embrace with open arms, great excitement and bright expectations the idea of
creating additional Council Development Areas in Oyo State, and particularly in
the Oyo Metropolitan or Greater Oyo Area. We have indeed, proposed a number of
additional LCDAs to the Oyo State Government.
b. We
are, however, not favourably disposed to a situation where the creation of such
development Areas will encroach on established boundaries or involve the ceding
of statutory entities to others without their consent. We are against “robbing Peter to pay Paul in
the creation of LCDAs
c. We
strongly believe that contiguous communities have a lot in common and that
peaceful /lawful means should always be employed in resolving knotty issues while
the use of force/coercion or violence should be avoided at all times.
Brief
Historical Background on Afijio
We need to brief on the
background of Afijio Local Government.
From the very beginning
of the agitation for Afijio Local Government, there are ample evidences that Oyo
was NOT opposed to the transformation of Oyo South Constituency to Afijio- provided
the following towns and villages – Jobele, Oluwatedo, Imini and trhe Ahoros
were excluded.
As a matter of fact,
Chief Abiodun Akerele, moved the motion which was seconded by Councillor Samuel
Adebayo Adeniya (both from Oyo):
“That the Afijio
District Council be constituted and should comprise of the following Towns;
AWE, FIDITI, ILORA, IJAYE-OJUTAYE, IWARE and should specifically exclude the
following Oyo Towns and villages; OLUWATEDO, JOBELE, IMINI, AHORO MOLETE, ILU
AJE, IMELEKE, AHORO ELEPE, GUDUGBU, AHORO JABATA, AHORO OLORI, AHORO APAARA,
AHORO BALE AKEETAN, AHORO BALE AJAGBA, OJONGBODU, EPO, OKEWOLE, OKE OBA,
KIYESENI, ELESU, ASUNMODE ETC.”
Then, Councillor
Eyitayo moved an amendment;
“That Oyo South
Constituency known as Afijio and which comprises Awe, Akinmorin, Fiditi, Jobele, Ilora, Iware, Ilu Aje,
Ojutaye, Imeleke, Imini and Oluwatedo should be constituted into separate districts
Council provided the exclusion of these towns mentioned by Chief Akerele from
the proposed District Council is SUBJECTED TO THE FINDINGS OF A COMMISSION OF
ENQUIRY WHICH MAY BE INSTITUTED BY THE GOVERNMENT”.
Both the original
motion by Chief Akerele and the amendment moved by Councilor Eyitayo were put
to vote.
The count was 14 for
the Amendment to the motion and 38 for the Original motion.
RESOLVED:
“That the Afijio
District Council be constituted and should comprise of the following Towns:
Awe, Fiditi, Ilora, Ijaye Ojutaye, Akinmorin, Iware and should specifically
exclude the following towns and villages; Oluwatedo, Jobele, Imini, Ahoro
Molete, Ilu Aje, Imeleke, Ahoro Elepe, Gudugbu, Ahoro Jabata, Ahoro Olori,
Ahoro Apaara, Ahoro Bale Akeetan, Ahoro Bale Ajagba, Ojongbodu, Epo, Okewole,
Oke Oba, Kiyeseni, Elesu, Asunmode Etc.”
(Extracts from Official
Records of Oyo Southern District Council No. 3/1959)
Following the above
RESOLUTION, the Government of Western Region decided to subject the final
DECISIONS on Afijion to the findings of a commission of Enquiry as prayed by
Councilor Eyitayo. Subsequently, the Bajomo Enquiry headed by Chief C. A.
Bajomo, Senior Assistant Secretary, Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs eventually
recommended to the Government as follows;
1. The
Afijio District be established
2. That
the Area of the council should comprise of the following Afijio Group of villages
and their farmsteads; Awe, Akinmorin, Fiditi, Ilora, Iware, Imini, Jobele, Ilu
Aje and Ojutaiye.
3. That
Imeleke and Oluwatedo should not be included in the Area of the proposed
District Council.
4. That
all enclaves in the Afijio Group Area
which now form part of existing wards for Oyo town should not be included in the Area of the Proposed
District Council.
5. That
the Alaafin of Oyo should be the President of the Area of the Proposed District
Council
6. That
other enclaves in the Afijio Group Area which now pay taxes and rates to Oyo
town through their quarter Heads in Oyo should not be included in the Area of
the Proposed District Council.
7. That
the proposed Council if established should contribute 8% of its revenue to the
maintenance of the Office of the Alaafin.
As to reasons why certain
towns and villages were excluded from the Afijio Group, reference can be made
to pages 12 – 13 of Bajomo Commission of Enquiry Report and Recommendations.
Actions
Taken on LCDAs Programme
As soon as the
Government Gazette on the LCDAs was published, we started writing letters of
Appeal to appropriate authorities seeking for the correction of the glaring
errors in the delineation of the Towns and Villages included in the proposed
LCDAS with particular references to Atiba,
Afijio, Orire, Oyo East and Oyo West LGAs. We have no complaints about
all other LCDAs both inside and outside Oyo Metropolis.
We wrote such letters
on the following dates;
September 9 and 22,
2016
November 21, 2016
December 20, 2016
January 4, 2017
We also received a
delegation of placard-carrying protesters at Aganju Fore-Court, Oyo on Tuesday
29th November, 2016. The protesters were accusing the Alaafin of selling their lands and villages.
We attended a meeting
of the LCDA Petitions Committee in Ibadan on January 9, 2017 to further press
home our point and draw Government’s attention to the anomalies we found in the
process.
We are aware and
supportive of the legal steps recently taken by the CONCERNED Baales and Chiefs
in order to protect their fundamental human rights and the rights of their
people whose villages have been INVADED while we were still waiting for
Government to effect corrections.
OmoIyaKunmi
08062350129
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