Ondo State Government has vowed not to cede any of its communities in the coastal areas of Ilaje Local Government Area to Ogun State.
It assured all inhabitants of Ilaje Local Government that it would continue to exercise legitimate authority over its territory in accordance with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and in the interest of the security and well-being of all persons in the disputed areas.
The state urged the National Boundary Commission to release the report of the ethnographic study of the boundaries to determine the dispute and the real owner of the land.
Ondo Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Bamidele Ademola-Olateju, who spoke at a press briefing in Akure, faulted the allegation by Deputy Governor of Ogun State, Mrs Noimot Saleko Ayodele that Ogun state citizens were attacked in Irokun.
She said the allegation was false and became a pattern of alarming propaganda by the Ogun State Government as a strategy to reinforce false territorial claims on Irokun, Obinehin, Idigbengben, and Araromi seaside.
Olateju said linking attacks to the administrative actions of the Ondo State Government was deceptive.
The Information Commissioner said Irokun, Obineyin, Araromi, and other communities were not in dispute between both states.
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She said the declaration of Ondo State control over the area as illegal was not only untenable but an open invitation to lawlessness by miscreants who she said might be inclined to enforce the wish of the Ogun State Government in defence of ‘this baseless and unfounded declaration.’
According to her, “We regard the declaration by the Deputy Governor of Ogun State that “on no account will Ogun State Government cede an inch of this land to Ondo State” as comedic. We are committed to the development of these areas, and we state categorically that Ondo State is contented with its territorial boundaries within the Nigerian Federation.
“This includes its vast coastline, which is the longest among the littoral states, the boundary of which is historically shared with Lagos state in the west. The people of Ondo state know this and are at peace with the resolve of the state government to protect it. On no account will any part of it be ceded without justification.
“Although, the government of Ondo State has received reports of some unilateral mappings by the Ogun State Government in areas some of which both states have agreed with the National Boundary Commission at a meeting in Abeokuta on the 21st of February 2016, “we will allow the Commission to carry out an elaborate ethnographic study of the boundaries” to determine the dispute and the real owner of the land.”