deny

The Ijemo Council of Chiefs, Oke-Ijemo, Abeokuta, Ogun State, has denied ever opposing the urban renewal initiative of Governor Dapo Abiodun at the Ibara Housing Estate, Abeokuta.

The rebuttal was in response to recent comments by a former governor of the state, Chief Olusegun Osoba, who was quoted to have condemned any opposition from Egbaland to the project.

Chief Osoba had, according to media reports, taken a swipe at those protesting against the urban renewal at the Ibara Housing Estate in Abeokuta, urging the Egbas to learn from past mistakes.

He was particularly reported to have recalled that the University of Ibadan would have been sited in Abeokuta but for the division within the Egba, which led to it being taken to Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

The former governor reportedly made the comments during the commissioning of the Electronic Gate to the Hilltop Presidential Estate, Ibara, Abeokuta, in August.

He had said: “When I heard that some people were protesting about the urban renewal of Ibara Housing Estate, I was furious, and I want to appeal to us, Egba. We should learn. The University of Ibadan was supposed to be situated in Abeokuta, but because of the division within Egba, the university was taken to Ibadan.

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“This time around, those who say they are opposed to the urban renewal of Dapo Abiodun at Ibara Housing Estate can pack and go. We will continue to support Dapo Abiodun.

“When he leaves office, he’s not going to take Ibara Housing to Iperu. The colonial people who created GRA didn’t take GRA to the UK when they were leaving.”

However, in a statement jointly signed by Chiefs Salami Ajisafe, the Apena of Ijemo, and (Barr) Oyewole Oyero, Lemo of Ijemo and made available to journalists in Abeokuta by Chief Fredrick Fadipe, Baale of Mamu Ijemo town, the chiefs, faulted the governor’s comments, saying that as the ancestral owner of the land, it was natural for them to protest because the government never consulted them before it began the project.

The chiefs, under the aegis of Registered Trustees of Ijemo Council of Chiefs Foundation, explained further that the ongoing urban renewal project at the Ibara Housing Estate is purely for commercial purpose, and that this is part of the land for which their forefathers were unjustly massacred by the British colonial authorities in August 1914.

The statement partly reads: “We wish to state straightaway that the Ijemos were never opposed to Governor Dapo Abiodun’s administration at any time, and up till now.

“However, our concern is about ancestry, history and traditional land holding in Egbaland as the first group of settlers in Egbaland in the 18th Century.

“History is replete with the phenomenon of massacres across the world that it would be an effort in futility to start cataloguing them here.

“Massacre is the indiscriminate, brutal, callous and ungodly slaughter of people. It is depopulation. The people of Ijemo suffered all these in the hands of the British Colonial authorities on the 8th day of August, 1914.

“This sordid situation must not be re-perpetuated in any form whatsoever using the instrumentality of the government. We have clearly made our representations to the Executive Governor of Ogun State and the Paramount Ruler of Egbaland HRM Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo, CFR, Okukenu IV.

“The land on which the entire estate situates is Ijemo’s ancestral land. In effect, it is our natural and constitutional right to protest against the Urban Renewal Drive without consultation with the original owners.

“While comments are free and facts remain sacred, the fact of citing UCH in Ibadan and not Abeokuta does not by any stretch of the imagination support Chief Osoba’s position; as it is a totally different issue.

“In-fact, the then Alake, HRM Oba Oladapo Ademola KBE, was better positioned regarding the articulated position of the Egbas then. History must not be distorted.

“The GRA renewal drive is purely a commercial venture without consultations with the original owners – the Ijemos.

“The Ijemos will no longer keep quiet and stand aloof when their heritage has been plundered for commercial purposes, hence our representation to the government as the only possible window under the ambit of the law.”