A socio cultural organization of the Igbominas from Kwara and Osun states, Asepo Omo Igbomina, has held its 12th conference in Ilorin where they resolved to intensify efforts in their demands for the creation for a separate state of their own.
The conference which was chaired by the Olupo of Ajase Ipo, Oba Sikiru Atanda Sanni, Wonuola II, as the head of Igbominas in Kwara stated that the conference was part of the series of efforts by the people to demand for unified identity in the name of a state.
They argued that their agitation had started since the colonial time to the successive military regimes in the country when they used to meet in Ila Orangun, now in Osun state well ahead of the creation of states in the country.
They said their agitation was renewed in 2004/2005 under President Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime when they demanded for Oke Oodua state after holding due consultations with eminent groups and persons in the south western states.
They pointed out that their agitations would never cease until a re-arrangement is done with the boundaries along the ethnic lines to make them belong to their historical and cultural place.
In a lecture by Dr. Ebenezer Ejalonibu, a lecturer with the University of Ilorin, Dr Ejalonibu noted that the idea of agitation for the state is to suit the historical and cultural belonging of the people and such demand is not a sin or harmful venture.
He described it as a demand necessitated by pronounced marginalization and victimization.
He also stated that so far, the states created in the country had been done by the military alone based on established wrong grouping of a people, pointing out that the best a democracy could do for the people is to listen to their genuine agitation and demands.