The founders of Ibokun, Ilesha and Osogbo were historically family members. By this virtue, these three ancient cities shared boundaries including Osun River and Oyile River before advent of intercepting towns or communities including, but not limited to, Ilase.
Obokun kingdom has been in existence since 12th century out of which, Ilesha and Osogbo were established. Ojagbodo and Olaege were brothers and princes of Ilesha. In a feud between Ojagbodo and Olaege at Iwo Ora river over a piece of fish, Olaege succeeded in catching the fish that engendered dispute between him and his brother resulting into the recent day trope “atewogbeja” of Osogbo, which is simply translated to “someone that stretched out his hands to accept or catch fish”.
Thereafter, Olaege moved away from Ilesha to a small settlement to become Owaroki near Orogboji after Ilesha. Olaege had children including Olafinade who became the next Owaroki after Olaege. However, Olafinade could not have children and Ifa oracle advised him to move out of his current domain and relocate far away until he would see a sign with an area that had three palm trees and three regular trees next to one another and that his settlement in that community would usher in developments that would address his barrenness. Olafinade did as advised and ended up at a community he later named Igbo Ipole which was coined out of his comment that this location was “not too far from home”. Subsequent descendants of Owaroki of Ipole near Omu river, also referred to as Ipole Omu became kings of Ipole Omu until Lajomo became Owaroki of Ipole Omu late 1600s. After the death of Lajomo, Larooye became the next Owaroki.
Around 1670, Ipole Omu experienced drought that warranted sending Olutimeyin on expedition that resulted into discovery of part of Osun river that serves as the current shrine of Osun Deity in Osogbo. After this discovery by Olutimeyin, Larooye and his people relocated to the current location of Osogbo. Meanwhile, Ipole Omu to Osogbo to the boundaries between Ibokun and Ilesha remained under the control of Owaroki Larooye who then became the first Ataoja of Osogbo.
Contrary to the foregoing historical facts that confirmed that Osogbo has been in existence as far back as prior to 1670, there was no community called Ilase between Ilesha and Osogbo and or Ibokun and Osogbo until around Kiriji war that occurred around 1877 to 1893. If the existence of Ipole Omu is to be factored into the existence of Osogbo, Osogbo and Ipole Omu had been in existence for over a century or more before Kiriji war. The historical fact has it that people that dispersed from Ila Orangun, largely Igbominasi people, settled in various communities during this Kiriji war, including the current community now referred to Ilase “Ijesha”. It was the Owa of Ibokun that reportedly gave a piece of land from his domain to these people to settle at, which was later named “Ilase”.
From time immemorial, Osogbo never engaged in boundary dispute with Ijesha people because Ibokun, Osogbo and Ilesha founders were all brothers. The recent boundary dispute against Osogbo by the Ilase people has nothing to do with ancestral Ijesha lineage of Osogbo because Ilase was never part of this history before the Kiriji war.
The story to continue…..
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