Following the pronouncement by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu that the Araromi seaside community in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State would soon be turned to a tourist centre, there have been claims and counter claims involving indigenes of Ondo and Ogun states over ownership of the community. HAKEEM GBADAMOSI writes on the controversy.
The recent declaration by the Ondo State governor, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, to turn the Araromi seaside community in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State to a tourist centre which would attract global attention, as part of his administration’s plan to develop tourism as a viable means of revenue generation in the state, has turned the long forgotten community to a beautiful bride.
Akeredolu had, earlier in August, disclosed that the government had concluded arrangements to declare the seaside a tourism zone, noting that the huge potentials of the area had been left untapped by the tourism sector.
The governor, who promised to replicate the success stories of tourism in the state, said: “We have reached an agreement to declare our waterfronts or shores, where we have a lot of advantage in the country, a tourism zone.”
The recent announcement may be one of the reasons the governor embarked on the construction of a 50-kilometre road to link the coastal communities in the state with Lagos State. The governor had, a few years ago signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to construct the road.
The road is expected to connect Araromi seaside with Akodo in Ibeju-Lekki Local Government Area of Lagos State, which is expected to be completed within two and half years. Akeredolu stated during the flag-off ceremony for the road, that when completed, the road would help to decongest the Benin-Ore-Lagos expressway.
According to the governor, “once this project is completed, the people can now travel to Lagos by road in less than an hour, as against the usual four to five hours being spent through other roads to Lagos.”
However, following the announcement by Akeredolu, a traditional ruler, the Onirokun of Irokun, Oba Buari Ola Balogun (Ogbelege IV), in the Ogun Waterside Local Government Area of Ogun state, said the Araromi seaside, the proposed tourism zone, is part of Ogun Waterside Local Government and is under Ogun State, not Ondo State.
The monarch said: “For the sake of clarification, reference should be made to the geographical boundary declaration of states along the Bight of Benin, even at the time, and after the Western Region, where it will be found that the entire landmark of Araromi seaside fell into Ijebu land and is one of the communities of Irokun Kingdom of Ogun Waterside.
“Secondly, it should interest everyone that may be concerned to know that I have severally visited Araromi seaside as one of the communities under my jurisdiction, and had serious consultations with the dwellers of the land, who were scheming to move out to Ondo State on the grounds that they are a community that has been abandoned by the Ogun State government.
“I frantically established it to the people there on the land, that despite their agitation for Ondo State as a people, the land they occupy cannot be transferred to Ondo State by them; that the land belongs to the Irokun Kingdom, an Ijebu community under the administration of the Awujale of Ijebu land, and is under Ogun Waterside Local Government Area of Ogun State.
“It is, therefore, very pertinent this time around that I am using this opportunity and medium to voice out to both Ogun Waterside Local Government and Ogun State Government that the land mentioned here, Araromi seaside, is their land and not that of Ondo State.”
But countering the claim, the people of the Maporure community of Aheri-land in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State, faulted the claims of the Onirokun, Oba Buari Ola Balogun, that Araromi seaside is part of Ogun Waterside Local Government Area and not Ondo State.
The people of Aheri-land, in a letter to the state governor through their solicitors, Royal Practice Legal Practitioners and Consultants, and signed by Ige Asemudara, described the claims as not only false but unfounded, and maintained that Araromi seaside had been part of Ilaje community of Ondo State from time immemorial.
The letter to the governor read: “We are Solicitors to the royal dynasty of the Maporure of Aheri-land in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State.
“Our Client has drawn our attention to the above-captioned publication with instructions to correct the several false claims made therein by one Buari Ola Balogun purporting himself as the ‘Onirokun of Irokun’, a community forming part of the ancient territory of Aheri-land and to urge Your Excellency to ignore such insignificant tantrum.
“In the said publication, the self-styled Onirokun falsely claimed that Araromi seaside was in the Ogun Waterside Local Government Area of Ogun State, contrary to the truth that Araromi is squarely within the Aheri Ward of Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State and not even a border community.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Aheri land, which is coterminous with the Ward is the most westerly of the four Ilaje Kingdoms with its littoral boundary extending to Olosunmeta on the Lekki Peninsula corridor as long determined even before Nigeria became a British Protectorate and later a colony in 1900.
“It is the fact of its territorial contiguity with Lagos that the British Government, by an Act of the Nigerian Legislative Council, on the 29th day of November 1895, extended the laws of the Colony of Lagos to Ilaje land and by which it was declared part of the Colony.
“Attempts later to alter this well defined boundary and territory for political exigencies has been the source of unending crises between Ondo/Abeokuta Provinces, which birthed the present Ondo and Ogun States, particularly when Ijebu was crafted from Abeokuta in 1915 with a rejected policy to create costal territory for Ijebu on part of the western fringe of Ilaje soil.
“Your Excellency, the same attempt was rejected in the hinterland of the territory forcing the contrived Ijebu Waterside to be changed to Ogun Waterside in the false hopes of appropriating the Ilaje/Ikale territories along the Itebu Elero/Ayila corridor.
“In recent times, the National Boundary Commission, in agreement with all stakeholders, had to resort to ethnographic analysis to resolve the unwarranted crises.
“In the final analysis, we state without equivocation that both Araromi and Irokun are one hundred percent Ilaje communities and within the Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State. No state or ethnic group is in dispute with us over them.”
In a twist, the people of the Araromi seaside community faulted the claims of the traditional ruler and the Aheri people, saying the area is neither part of Aheri-land nor Ogun State as claimed by the two parties.
Speaking on behalf of the people, the Baale of Araromi seaside community, High Chief Benaya Okuntade, said the community has from time immemorial been under the suzerainty of the Amapetu of Mahin, adding that the inhabitants are of Mahin origin.
Okuntade explained that Irokun itself was, at a time, under the sovereignty of the Amapetu of Mahin as most of the inhabitants were of Mahin origin, saying the the traditional ruler of Mahin, Oba Igbaakin Omowole 1, appointed an Oloja in Irokun, granting him powers to collect tax in 1919.
Okuntade said: “Never in the history of Araromi seaside has the Aheri people or the Maporure ever exercised any form of authority over Araromi land or its people. A 1955 agreement between Oba M.A. Gbose, the Maporure of Agerige, and the people of Araromi bears out this fact, when he expressly stated that his kingdom did not extend to Araromi Seaside.
“There was a case instituted and fought by the Aheri people against Araromi such as the HOK/9/91, HOK/8/2012 and CA/AK/275/2014 over Araromi land and the authority of Amapetu over Araromi, which they lost.
“For the record, I reiterate that Araromi seaside is not part of Irokun land nor in Ogun State, and I state that not one of their progenitors of Buari Balogun ever stepped on Araromi soil in exercise of any form of authority over our land and people, and I dare him to attempt to step on our land.
“Araromi seaside has never been part of Aheri-land. We, therefore, use this medium to appeal to Ondo State government to expedite action and approve the desire of the Araromi seaside people through their memorandum which is before it to have their Oloja.
“The government should approve Adeoloye Olawole, the Oba-elect, to be upgraded to status of Oba to ward off the incursion of the Ijebu people in their expansionist agenda over the area.”
They, however, maintained that Araromi seaside has been part of Ondo State, and urged the state governor to ignore any contrary position.
Speaking on the development, a Prince of Araromi seaside, Prince Rafael Adesuyi, said if the government can develop the beach to attract tourists, it will be of great benefit to the community and Ondo State in general.
He called on the the people of Araromi seaside and the state to invest in the untapped tourism potentials that abound in the community, saying this will help to to change the socio economic status of the community and the people.
He said: “The community possesses a unique scenery that could attract large tourist patronage that could compliment the effort of the administration to boost the state tourism sector.”
A resident of the community, John Morakinyo, attributed the controversy over ownership of the community to the potentials within the community.
Morakinyo, who explained that the state government is planning to site a port in the area, said the site of the proposed Port of Ondo, which also has an industrial city with Free Trade Zone status, measures 2,771.2 hectares with longest coastline in West Africa.
Another resident, Aromire Ikuesan, said the port and tourist centre will contribute to improving the economy.
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