ONDO REJECTS OGUN’S OWNERSHIP CLAIM OF OIL-BEARING ISLAND
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By: Sefiu Ajape
The Ondo State Government has insisted that Eba Island, the oil-bearing community at the centre of a dispute with neighboring Ogun State, is located in Ondo and not Ogun.
In a statement on Friday, the Special Adviser to Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa on Communication and Strategy, Allen Sowore, said the oil deposit is situated in Atijere, Ondo State.
“The oil deposit is located within the Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State. The landowners are indigenes of Atijere, where they reside. The village has existed since at least 1937, and Eba Island has historically fallen under the Atijere Native Court Authority,” Sowore wrote.
He noted that “River Ufara, which runs through Imakun into Oluwa River, serves as a natural demarcating feature/boundary between Ilaje land and Ijebu land.”
Tracing the island’s political history, he said: “Subsequently, Eba Island was incorporated into the Ilaje District Council around 1950, with Atijere as its headquarters. When Ilaje/Ese-Odo Local Government Area was created in 1975, the island remained under its jurisdiction. Following the creation of Ese-Odo Local Government Area in 1997, Eba Island continued as an integral part of Ilaje Local Government Area, where it remains to this day—still designated as an Ondo State Forestry Reserve.”
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Sowore explained that the surrounding villages of Ago Alaja, Balogun Bode, and Fasuyi are cluster communities of Atijere.
He appealed to the National Boundary Commission and other federal agencies “to make available authoritative records and documentary evidence capable of putting an end to these misleading claims and unnecessary public tension.”
The aide urged residents to remain calm, adding that the Ondo government “will not hesitate to take lawful steps to defend Eba Island.”
“Finally, Ondo State reaffirms its full cooperation with the Federal Government in the protection of this national asset and in establishing, beyond doubt, the true location of the oil deposit and the territory in which it lies,” the statement read in part.
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