The people of Ipoti-Ekiti in Ijero Council Area of Ekiti State yesterday staged a protest to express dissatisfaction about attempt by some powerful forces to relocate the newly-created Irede LCDA headquarters to Ikoro-Ekiti.
The protesters, carrying placards, chanted solidarity songs and mounted roadblock along major roads in the town for hours, thus preventing free flow of traffic.
The Owa Ajero, Oba Adebayo Adewole and his entourage, who was at a social function in Usi-Ekiti, was prevented by the protesters from passing through the barricade.
Speaking with reporters, the leader of the protesters, Prince Folorunso Adetoso, said it smacked of injustice and arrogance of power for some highly placed people to deny Ipoti people the right of hosting the newly created LCDA headquarters.
He said the alleged plot to relocate the headquarters of the LCDA from its original location was part of a calculated attempt by some paranoid elements parading themselves as human beings to cause communal crisis, adding that such open robbery would be resisted.
According to him, “we have been on this struggle since 2014 during Governor Kayode Fayemi’s first tenure. Ipoti was named as the headquarters of the newly established Irede LCDA, with adjoining towns such as Odo Owa, Ejiyan and Ilukuno. Nowhere was Ikoro mentioned then.
“We presented our memo, which contained our demands, before the government when the LCDA idea was being proposed. We even provided infrastructure, including a befitting edifice for the take-off of the council secretariat before the last administration truncated the process.
“We implore Governor Fayemi to correct the anomaly by relocating Irele LCDA headquarters to Ipoti, where it rightfully belongs. As law-abiding citizens, we are ready to use legitimate means to get this illegality reversed.”
Reacting, the monarch of the town, Oba James Oladipupo Kolade, thanked the people for their peaceful conduct.
He urged them not to take the law into their hands by resorting to violence.
“I’m in support of your rightful agitation because it is your future that is at stake and your inalienable right to self- determination.
“I assure you that our amiable governor has no hand in this purported relocation of the council secretariat to Ikoro, which to me is at best, an error which cannot see the light of the day,” the traditional ruler said.
He said an average Ekiti indigene knew that following the 2014 declaration, the LCDA in his domain had taken off and was running smoothly for almost four months in the first tenure of Governor Fayemi before it was truncated by the immediate past administration.
“The question that begs for answer is; if the running continued unabated, will the headquarters magically transform itself to another location?”