The Awori in Lagos has declared they were the earliest settlers in Lagos contrary to claims that the Bini descendants were.
The National President of under the Awori Welfare Association of Nigeria, AWAN, Chief Solomon Ojolowo, at a press conference in Lagos on Tuesday said the clarification became imperative following a statement credited to a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Prince Tajudeen Olusi, that “Awori people are not in Lagos.”
Olusi had in a recent media interview said there are no Awori in Yorubaland.
“These are just other people who came to Lagos through another route from the hinterland, like Ile-Ife. Awori is just a description of how they got to where they settled.”
However, a representative of the Ooni of Ife, Adewale Williams, who presented a letter from Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, to the Awori indigenes in Lagos, affirmed that the Awori indigenes from Ife were the first settlers in Lagos.
The tradiotioner ruler is being pummelled by Ohaneze over his statement that Yoruba and Igbo were brothers from Ife, while the pan-Igbo group claimed Yorubas were slaves of an Igbo prince that first settled in Ile Ife.
Ojolowo also insisted the Awori of Lagos constitute the largest single ethnic sub-group in the state, constituting about 75 per cent of the population.
He also said the Bini were strangers in Lagos, adding that some of the places they settled on arrival in Lagos were Awori land.
Ojolowo stated that out of the original 20 local government areas in Lagos State, the Awori formed the indigenous population of 17 LGAs, including Lagos Island, Ojo, Badagry, Amuwo-Odofin, Ajeromi-Ifelodun, Apapa, Oshodi-Isolo, Mushin, Agege, Ikeja, Alimosho, Kosofe, Eti-Osa, Lagos Mainland, Surulere, Shomolu and Ifako-Ijaye.
“We make bold to say that the Bini are strangers in Lagos. First, let me confirm the veracity of the statement by Prince Olusi that Lagos and by implication, Awori favour strangers more than indigenes,” he sid.
“ There is an Awori tradition and culture that leads to this. In the very early days of Awori spreading to other settlements, the settlers would nominate or appoint Oba on consultation of Ifa Oracle.
“The Ifa priest sometimes would say that a visitor was on the way to the town, or that they should look out for a stranger or visitor who would arrive early in the morning and should be conscripted and crowned as Oba. This is how the Bini became Obas in some places where they settled in Awori land.”
He urged Olusi to retract the claims or be ready to face legal action for allegedly misleading the people.