Date: 2020-12-30

The Ila-Orangun Elders' Consultative Forum on Tuesday insisted that no region or section in Igbominaland was superior to Ila-Orangun people.

The elders during a press conference said the father and founder of Ila-Orangun town, Ifagbamila was one of the direct sons of Oduduwa and bearer of the pathfinder cutlass, known as "ada-ogbo" used in establishing the Igbomina Kingdom.

The elders who gave their submission under the aegis of Concerned Citizens of Ila-Orangun and it's environs, insisted that some persons were trying to distort history by claiming they also possess the pathfinder cutlass and are superior to the Ila-Orangun people.

Speaking on behalf of the elders, Pa Gabriel Oyinlola, said "When Ifagbamila was to leave Ile-Ife, his father presented him with a mystery pathfinder cutlass known as "ada-ogbo" to use in establishing his own Kingdom like other six direct children of the Oduduwa.

"There are four of Oduduwa sons in Nigeria, namely; the Orangun of Ila in Osun, Oba of Benin in Edo State, the Olowu in Osun and the Alaafin of Oyo in Oyo State, and three in the Republic of Benin, namely; the Alaketu, the Onisabe and the Olupopo. All other Yoruba Obas are grandsons and great-grandsons.

"I want to say that the Orangun has a reserved bedroom in the Oduduwa Palace in Ile-Ife and it is only the Orangun, out of all Yoruba Obas, that can invoke the spirit of the Oduduwa without any adverse consequence.

"The pathfinder cutlass known as "ada-ogbo" by which the word "Igbomina" was derived is kept in a sacred place in the Orangun's Palace.

"It is unthinkable that the legendary Oduduwa would have presented to another person not his direct son a similar cutlass as being claimed by a community in Kwara State," he said

The 95-year-old, Oyinlola, stated that the statement made in Omu-Aran by the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, that it was the same Cutlass that led the Omu-Aran to their location, is what gave room to the controversy.

He, however, said it was soothing that the same Oba Ogunwusi made another statement on Sunday, December 20, 2020, at Ile-Ife which affirmed that, if the Orangun Ifagbamila had not left Ile-Ife to find his own domain, he would have been the one to reign in Ile-Ife after his father, the legendary Oduduwa.