Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun, Minister of Communication Adebayo Shittu, former Osun State Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola, as well as the Elese-elect, Prince Oluremi Obayomi, the town’s incoming monarch, are among the top dignitaries to attend the 12th Ilese Day and Carnival, from Sunday August 7 to Saturday August 13, at Ilese-Ijebu in Ogun State.
A statement by the Ilese Development Council organisers said the programme of events during the week-long festival will feature the Miss Ilese Beauty pageant, for which a brand new car is the winner’s prize, free medical tests and services for the townspeople, by the College of Health Technology, Ilese-Ijebu and the Centre for Alternative Development and Self-Enhancement (CEADESE), a baby show and an Ikokore cooking competition. Ikokore is a delicacy, famous among the Ijebu.
But the grand-finale of the festival is a youth carnival, which the organisers said is the first in Ijebuland, in which some 8,000 youths, clad in costumes of different colours and designs, will feature.
Climaxing the grand-finale itself is the launch of a N50 million development fund, aimed at developing facilities in the town.
Addressing a news conference at the Ilese-Ijebu Town Hall, Otunba Kunle Kalejaye, chairman of the organising committee, said the 21st Ilese Day, which promises to be the biggest ever, would kick off with a thanksgiving service at St. Paul’s Church, Ilese-Ijebu, on Sunday, August 7.
However, the Ilese Muslims would observe their own thanksgiving at the Ilese-Ijebu Central Mosque, on Friday August 12.
Ilese is an Ijebu settlement of 17 towns and villages; and the Ilese-Ijebu Day is a yearly convocation of all of the town’s sons and daughters which, over the past 21 years, the Ilese Development Council has organised and sponsored, to foster the spirit progress and community self-development.