By Demola Atobaba, Ado-Ekiti
Residents of Ipoti-Ekiti community in Ijero local government area of Ekiti state have taken to the streets to expressed dissatisfaction over alleged injustice on an attempt by “some powerful forces” within Ijero local government to relocate the headquarters of the newly created Local Council Development Area, LCDA, to Ikoro-Ekiti from Ipoti, the original location.
The aggrieved protesters, in a peaceful rally, blocked major roads in the town and nearly prevented the Owa-Ajero, Oba Adebayo Adewole and his entourage from passing as they carried placards with various inscriptions and chanted solidarity songs.
Speaking with Orient Daily during the peaceful protest, one of the protesters simply identified as Adeoye said that it smacked of injustice and arrogance of power that, for some unexplainable reasons, some people would openly deny Ipoti people their right, emphasising that such open robbery would be fought with the last blood in their veins.
“We have been on this struggle since 2014 during Governor Kayode Fayemi’s first tenure and Ipoti community was named as the headquarters of the proposed Irede LCDA with adjoining towns such as Odo-Owa, Ejiyan-Ekiti and Ilukuno-Ekiti and nowhere was Ikoro mentioned.
“We have presented our memo and every requirement including a befitting infrastructure had been made available for the take-off of the council secretariat before the last administration came to truncate the process,” Adeoye said.In a video viewed by our correspondent, the royal father of the town, Oba James Oladipupo Kolade, Oluwademilade 1, thanked his subjects for their peaceful conduct while appealing to them not to take laws into their hands by resorting to violence.
“I’m in support of your rightful agitation because it is your future that is at stake and your inalienable right to self-determination.“I, however, want to assure you that our amiable governor has no hand in this shenanigan of purported relocation of the council secretariat to Ikoro-Ekiti which, to me, was, at best, an error which cannot see the light of the day,” he stated.Speaking further, Oba Olupoti disclosed that an average Ekiti indigene knows that following the 2014 declaration, the LCDA in his domain had taken off and was running smoothly for almost four months in the first tenure of Governor Fayemi’s administration before it was truncated by the immediate past administration.
“The question that begs for answer is; if the running continued unabated, would the headquarters magically transform itself to another location”? Oba Kolade asked.
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