Ayodele Olalere
The Obateru of Egbin Kingdom in Ijede Local Council Development Area, Ikorodu, Oba Adeoriyomi Abdul-Akeem Oyebo (arpa), has been presented with a peace award for his contribution to the security and peace in the Ikorodu division.
The first class monarch was honoured at a meritorious and special recognition awards ceremony organised by the Ikorodu Division Peace Initiative, IDPIL, held at his palace, Egbin.
IDPIL was founded two years ago by the Odofin Erujeje of Ikorodu, Odofin Adewinmi Adedeji Ogunsanya, popularly known as ‘Mr Multichoice’ , as a local security outfit to tackle cases of cultish, landgrabbing and kidnapping ravaging Ikorodu .
Following the successes recorded by the group,Ikorodu has experienced relative peace as peace has gradually returned to the division.
Oba Oyebo dedicated the award to Odofin Adewinmi for founding iand his financial contribution to the organisation.
” I feel elated for this award but I believe whatever I am doing for humanity is what God almighty wanted me to do for society.. When IDPIL was first established, it was to tackle insecurity in Ikorodu .Some years back, if you hear about Ikorodu, you would fear because we had hoodlums, cultists and landgrabbers but now, it has reduced drastically. Now the group has gone beyond addressing insecurity, it’s now taking care of health, education and other things relating to Ikorodu people.”
He added: ” However, the person that deserves this award more is the initiator of the group who is the Odofin Adewinmi Ogunsanya. He has spent close to N300 million of his personal money in the past two years to fund the group, he bought close to 30 brand new cars for their operation, employed hundreds of people to work there and pay them salaries from his pocket. So I am dedicating my award to him. If everyone of us in this division can emulate what he’s doing, Ikorodu would have been a better place and a better society. Other divisions can copy it too.”
He promised that the peace Ikorodu has enjoyed will be maintained. He commended indigenes of Ikorodu who have contributed to the development of the town, citing the icase of mmediate past Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Abisola Olusanya, who have just been reappointed by governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. He urged the government to give more opportunities to sons and daughters of Ikorodu for them to showcase their abilities.
“As traditional rulers, we are ready to take over from the older ones. There are thousands of Bisola in Ikorodu but not giving opportunities to showcase their abilities.
To maintain this peace, we’ll continue to contribute morally to the group. We’ll not relent in our efforts and continue to encourage and support Odofin Adewinmi to do more. I am ready to leave whatever am doing to make sure the peace is maintained . If we continue to encourage our people to do more of things like this, insecurity will be a thing of the past,” he said.
