The Ekiti State government has appealed to traditional rulers in 140 towns to synergise and form a strong coalition to stem the spiralling inter-city land tussles in some communities.
The government posited that with love and unity among traditional rulers, some of the stroppy boundary crises experienced in the towns would have been resolved before snowballing into violence and bloodshed.
The Deputy Governor, Mrs. Monisade Afuye, said this in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday while brokering a truce in a land dispute between Esure and Ilomu Ekiti in the Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area of Ekiti State.
The government’s intervention stemmed from an accusation raised through petitions written by the two communities claiming ownership of a parcel of land located at a border between the two contiguous communities.
Presiding over the matter at a parley with the community leaders, Mrs Afuye appealed to Elesure of Esure Ekiti, Oba Adebanji Ajibola, and his counterpart at Ilomu, Oba Oluwadamilare Omobiire, to meet and devise ways to resolve the prolonged land crisis between the two towns.
Mrs Afuye specifically appealed to Oba Ajibola to allow Ilomu youths, who had cut some logs of trees on that contentious portion of land for personal use, to remove them to prevent the situation from affecting their businesses.
However, the Deputy Governor mandated the Ekiti State Boundary Technical Committee members to revisit the place to ascertain the quantum of land involved and carry out appropriate demarcation that will bring lasting solutions to the recurring bedlam.
Mrs Afuye rejected the suggestion that Awo-Esure-Ifaki Road should be used to demarcate the town, saying the land from each city had extended and interwoven across the highway, which would make such a solution impossible.
The Deputy Governor added that the government’s autonomy in creating new communities is a policy geared towards developing the state, and this shouldn’t be a source of friction among communities.
At the parley, the Elesure of Esure Ekiti, Oba Ajibola, accused the Ilomu people of intimidating their people over the land with military personnel, describing this as unacceptable because it was capable of triggering violence.
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