Ife-Okotun Origin

ORIGIN

In the writing of the history of African peoples, the most reliable sources are internal ones. External written sources are at best supplementary to internally available information. Oral history has it that the ancestors of the people of Ife-Olukotun, led by Olofin Ogbolu, the first Ajalorun of Ife-Olukotun migrated from Ile-Ife because of a chieftaincy dispute.

This oral history correlates a story in the Sunday Concord Newspaper of 7th May, 1989 captioned “Ile-Ife, Ijebu-Ife and Ife-Olukotun: A tale of three towns with one ancestor”. Part of the story states as follows: “The story of Ife-Olukotun is the story of one man called Ajalorun, who, like the founder of Ijebu-Ife, migrated from Ile-Ife to settle in Ife-Olukotun, following a chieftaincy feud between him and his brother, and had to be asked by the oracle to leave Ile-Ife”

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION

Ife-Olukotun, formerly known as Ife-Iyagba or Ife Yagba, is the headquarters of South East Yagba District in Yagba East Local Government Area of Kogi State. It is located at kilometer 94 north of Owo in Ondo State through Ikare-Arigidi-Omuwo-Ife Olukotun- Ponyan-Jege-Egbe and Pategi in Kwara State.

It is about 120kilometers from Lokoja, the capital of Kogi State, and about 230 kilometers from Ilorin, if it is approached through Mopa-Ikare-Ife-Olukotun state Road. It lies within latitudes 7°N and 8°N of the Equator and Longitudes 5°E and 6°E of Greenwich Meridian.

Gallery

The Oba's in Ife-olukotun, Kogi State Nigeria Photos;

NAME: His Royal Highness ALHAJI SHUAIB AYEGBAJEJE MOHAMMED

DATE: 2003 Till Date

The True Heritage of Ife-Olukotun

The documentation of the history of Ife-Olukotun is long overdue. 

There is no doubt that oral tradition will become skewed along the line if left undocumented for too long.

The idea of writing this book began in 1978 when the Ilorin Branch of the “ife-olukotun Descendants’ Union” commissioned the late chief S. Ola Alimi and Chief J.I. Ipinyemi to research into the history of Ife-olukotun and document such findings for future guidance. This was a result of conflicting stories among members especially on chieftaincy matters and generally on oral tradition. For a long period after the early 1980s, there was not much zeal to carry on with the research. 

However, I was encouraged to resume work on the book in 2005 after I had read some inaccurate information about Ife-olukotun in the book titled “a History of the yagba people” by E.B Iyekolo.

It is not an easy task to elicit facts from people. It demands long patience and diligence to ascert8ain facts devoid of and partisanship, hence the long delay in publishing this book. Even now there are still some areas to be uncovered. It is not helpful to the course of history to guess or place assumptions on such issues. 

They are better left as subjects of further research in future.

 However, all that have been written in this book were based on verifiable facts and established oral history rather than fabrications to suit dreams.

The true heritage of Ife-olukotun must be preserved.

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