One dead, others injured in boundary dispute between Ekiti, Kwara communities

The boundary dispute between the Eda Oniyo community in Ilejemeje Local Government Area of Ekiti State and the Obo Ayegunle town in Kwara State claimed one life on Saturday, while a yet-to-be ascertained number of people sustained injuries.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the boundary dispute escalated when armed men from Obo Ayegunle allegedly attacked Eda Oniyo on Saturday.

It was learnt that in the ensuing melee, one person from the Eda Oniyo community was reportedly killed before soldiers, police personnel, and members of the Amotekun Corps got to the scene to curtail the crisis.

Recall that the Ekiti State Deputy Governor, Monisade Afuye, had, on Thursday last week, interfaced with the Eda Oniyo community over the festering boundary dispute between the two towns.

In their submissions at the parley, the traditional head of Eda Oniyo, Oba Awolola, had complained about how some people from Obo Ayegunle allegedly invaded his town and started arresting people indiscriminately and clamped them in detention over a vast plot of land located between the two towns.

Oba Awolola had disclosed that the Obo Ayegunle farmers had been paying royalty to Eda Oniyo on the land for decades but that they stopped recently and allegedly began making efforts to take over the land from his people forcefully.

The monarch had explained that the land under dispute belonged to the Eda Oniyo based on the National Boundary Commission (NBC) resolution about the presence of Ondo State’s pillar on the land and backed by a document gazetted as legal notice No 126 of 1954 under the Western region.

The traditional ruler said that Obo Ayegunle relocated to their present location in 1927, while Eda Oniyo Ekiti had settled in the town since the 14th Century, sharing boundaries with Etan and Eruku in Kwara State.

“In 2008, there was a meeting called by NBC between the two communities where some resolutions were made in favour of Ekiti that the legal notice No 126 of 1954 should be allowed to stand because it remains an extant document and is yet to be amended.

“They can’t use threat and violence to retrieve that land. That boundary can’t be changed orally. They don’t have anything to controvert the 1954 document. That land belonged to Eda Oniyo, and what Obo Ayegunle was doing was an attempt by Kwara State to rob Ekiti of its inheritance,” the traditional ruler said.

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Giving further explanation on the dispute at the meeting with Mrs Afuye, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Olugbenga Odesanmi, had revealed that the matter could be resolved with the government’s intervention, saying the land was about to be taken over because it was leased for too long by Eda Oniyo people.

Mr Odesanmi added that Obo Ayegunle had expanded from their present location to the land under dispute, stressing that there could be a need for the NBC to intervene and resolve the matter amicably.

In his submission, the state’s Deputy surveyor-general, Rufus Gbadura, had said the land under dispute bore the pillars that demarcated the boundary between the Western region and the Northern province, which further attested to the fact that it belonged to Ekiti State.

However, in a counter move, the Obo Ayegunle Descendants Union, in a letter addressed to Governor Biodun Oyebanji, also accused Eda Oniyo Ekiti of intruding into their lands and causing unnecessary insurrection.

Meanwhile, the Ekiti State government has appealed to residents of Eda Oniyo to remain calm over the attack on the community.

The state Commissioner for Information, Taiwo Olatunbosun, in a statement made available to journalists in Ado Ekiti, assured that the situation had been brought under control.

The commissioner, however, disclosed that additional troops had moved to the area to protect the community while the army formation in Kwara State has been contacted to deploy troops along the Kwara side of the border to curtail further attacks from both sides.

He expressed condolences to the family of the deceased and prayed for the quick recovery of those injured in the incident.