Boundary Dispute: Ondo Govt Fires Back At Ogun Counterpart

Accusations and counter-accusations are flying about over a boundary dispute between Ondo State government and its Ogun counterpart.

Today, it was the Ondo State government that addressed a press conference where it fired back at its Ogun state counterpart over alleging that its people were being attacked by Ondo citizens in the in Irokun at Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State.

Bamidele Ademola-Olateju, Ondo State Commissioner for Information and Orientation who addressed the press conference in Akure, described the allegation as patently false and a pattern of alarming propaganda by the Ogun State Government.

The commissioner said it had become as a strategy to reinforce a false territorial claim on Irokun, Obinehin, Idigbengben and Araromi seaside.

She also described as deceptive, the action of the deputy governor of Ogun State urging the Ondo State Government to call her citizens to order on allegations that they were attacking their counterparts from Ogun State.

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“While the government of Ondo State is irrevocably committed to securing the lives and properties of its residents, we also note with high sense of responsibility that Ondo and Ogun state are sister states of the same Yoruba ethnic stock.

 “We regard the declaration by the deputy governor of Ogun State that “on no account will Ogun State Government cede an inch of this land to Ondo State” as comedic,” she said, despite that Ondo state government was committed to the development of the areas.

 “Although, the government of Ondo State has received reports of some unilateral mappings by the Ogun State Government in areas some of which both states have agreed with the National Boundary Commission at a meeting in Abeokuta on the 21st of February 2016,

“We will allow the commission to carry out an elaborate ethnographic study of the boundaries” to determine the dispute and the real owner of the land.

“While we await and urge the commission to earnestly release the final report of the ethnographic survey, the Ondo State Government wishes to assure all inhabitants of Ilaje Local Government and the state at large of its continued exercise of legitimate authority over its territory.

“This is in accordance with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and in the interest of the security and well being of all persons in the disputed areas,” she said

The Eagle reports that issues have festered over the boundary dispute between the sister states for some time now, leading to a November 3, statement from Ogun State government urging the other side to caution its citizens against encroaching on what it described as Ogun territory.

READ ALSO: Ogun Residents Suffer Non-Completion Of Odo Bridge

It also said Ondo State citizens were launching attacks on Ogun indigenes in the communities bordering the two states.

Those assertions were made by the Deputy Governor of Ogun State, and Chairman of the Ogun State Boundary Committee, Mrs. Noimot Salako-Oyedele.

Her assertion that “On no occasion will Ogun State government cede an inch of its land to Ondo State because of the activities of criminals who have been terrorising Ogun indigenes on their land”, is seen by many that the land dispute may have deteriorated than seem obvious.