Devise Starategies to Tackle Rising Land Dispute in Communities, Ekiti Govt Tasks Monarchs.
….mediates in Ilomu/Esure land tussle.
The Ekiti State Government has appealed to traditional rulers across the 140 towns in the state to synergise and form a strong coalition to stem the spiralling inter- city land tussles being witnessed in some communities.
The government posited that with love and unity among traditional rulers, some of the stroppy boundary crises being experienced in the towns would have been resolved before snowballing into violence and bloodshed.
The Deputy Governor said this in Ado Ekiti, on Tuesday, while brokering truce in a land dispute between Esure and Ilomu Ekiti, in Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area of Ekiti State.
The government’s intervention stemmed from an accusation raised through petitions written by the two communities laying claim to the ownership of a parcel of land located at a border area between the two contiguous communities.
Presiding over the matter at a parley with the community leaders, Mrs Afuye, in a statement signed by her Special Assistant on Media, Victor Ogunje, appealed to Elesure of Esure Ekiti, Oba Adebanji Ajibola and his counterpart at Ilomu, Oba Oluwadamilare Omobiire to meet and fashion out ways to resolve the prolonged land crisis between the two towns.
Specifically, Mrs Afuye, appealed to Oba Ajibola to allow Ilomu youths , who had cut some log of trees on that contentious portion of land for personal use to remove them to prevent the situation from affecting their businesses.
However, the Deputy Governor mandated the members of the Ekiti State Boundary Technical Committee to revisit the place to ascertain the quantum of land involved and carry out appropriate demarcation that will bring lasting solution to the recurring bedlam.
Mrs Afuye rejected the suggestion that Awo-Esure-Ifaki Road should be used to demarcate the town, saying the land from each town, had extended and interwoven across the highway, and this she said will make the application of such solution impossible.
The Deputy Governor added that the autonomy adopted by government to create new communities was a policy geared towards developing the state and this shouldn’t be a source of friction among communities.
“The issue of land shouldn’t be allowed to divide us. Our fore fathers who founded those communities didn’t bother about the ownership of lands, but only considered love, unity and togetherness. Allow this spirit to guide you.
“You are interwoven, either by marriage or any other consideration. You can’t afford to fight yourselves. We can’t have a perfect demarcation and that is why the spirit of give and take should come into play in this matter”.
In her verdict further, Mrs Afuye stated that th fact that some Esure indigenes had bought part of the land and paid to Eleku family of Ilomu to build their houses lent credence to the fact that the area under contention belongs to Ilomu Ekiti.
In his submission, the Olomu of Ilomu Ekiti, Oba Omobiire, said the land under contention belongs to his community from time immemorial, and that all the log of trees cut by his people that stoked the controversy was within their rights.
“I want the government to intervene and demarcate the land. It seems the internal mechanism to be used to resolve the matter had failed to yield result only the government can achieve any meaningful mileage on this issue. We are for peace and on peace will stand”.
The monarch stated that his people planted economic trees like cocoa, kolanut and plantain on the land, which he said had existed for decades before Esure Ekiti started claiming the area.
He said the Forest Guard operatives had visited the land and made inquiries over the ownership, which he claimed favoured his town because of ownership of economic trees in the area.
At the parley, the Elesure of Esure Ekiti, Oba Ajibola, accused Ilomu people of intimidating his people over the land with military personnel, describing this as unacceptable because it was capable of triggering violence.
Oba Ajibola insisted that the land belongs to his people and was only leased to an Ilomu indigene for farming, this he said prompted him to stop those who cut trees for building purposes from removing them.
