Obbo community in Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State has appealed to the Ekiti State government to prevail on Eda-Oniyo monarch and his subjects to stop their continued aggression against them.
The community said the appeal became necessary because Eda-Oniyo community, located in Ilejemeje Local Government Area of Ekiti State, have started threatening Obbo farmers again over the land in dispute between the two communities.
In a statement issued by the Obbo Descendants Forum (ODF), the community said eight men from Eda-Oniyo, led by one ‘Ojo Eda,’ invaded Obbo farmlands on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, and threatened to kill the farmers when next they meet them on the land.
“This is completely against our resolution at the recent meeting held at Ado-Ekiti,” the statement added.
The statement, signed by the President of ODF, Arch. Enoch Ade Ogun, said Eda- Oniyo people were particularly emboldened by the reports credited to a Permanent Secretary in the office of the Ekiti State Deputy Governor, Mr Leke Akinfolaju.
According to ODF, the permanent secretary’s skewed version of the story published in some newspapers gave the impression that Obbo people are tenants on their own ancestral land.
Ade Ogun said the permanent secretary’s distorted view suited the wrong thinking of Eda-Oniyo people that the colonial demarcating line (boundary) between the Northern and Southern protectorates of Nigeria represents a boundary between Obbo and Eda-Oniyo communities.
“Equally, it is held that the Administrative Notice of 1954 had transferred ownership of the southern part of Obbo land to them. Obbo people want to make it categorically clear that these positions are erroneous and far from the truth.
“As was clearly observed and stated by the representative of the Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation at our recent meeting at Ado-Ekiti, the boundary is purely administrative limits between the Northern and Southern parts of Nigeria as drawn by the colonial masters,” ODF asserted.
According to the Forum, this fact was also noted by the Director-General of the National Boundary Commission (NBC), who chaired the Ado-Ekiti meeting, where the two communities were directed to present documentary proofs of their claims to the ancestral ownership of the land in dispute.
The ODF then appealed to the Ekiti State Government to prevail on Eda-Oniyo people to toe the path of peace in resolving the land dispute, warning that “Obbo people have the right and are ready to defend themselves if the violent attacks from Eda-Oniyo presist and nobody cares to check them.”
