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”
Credence is further given to this told oral tradition by the account in Harold Courtlander’s Tales of Yoruba Gods and Heroes (1973), also cited by E.B. Iyekolo in his book titled. A History of the Yagba people (2000), part of which reads: “An account of Iyagba’s Origin says that in acient days, a certain regional Chief (whose name is not remembered) had a dispute with his Oba and was forced to exile.
He reached the Niger and settled there with his family. After he died, his wife made her living by selling cooked food for those who travelled up and down the river. She came to be known, not by her name, but as Iyaagba, The old woman, and the site itself was referred to as Iyagba”.
However, another account by E.B. Iyekolo (ibid) states that the migration was due to overpopulation and lack of farming ground.