Mahin Kingdom Rejects Imposition of Ugbo Origin Oba, Insists on Customary Law

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Mahin Kingdom Rejects Imposition of Ugbo Origin Oba, Insists on Customary Law

The people of Mahin Kingdom in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State have strongly condemned the illegal appointment of a person of Ugbo origin as Oba in the Mahin town of Aboto by the Ondo State Government. This decision was made at a General Meeting held at Ode-Mahin, the ancestral capital of Mahin Kingdom, on Saturday, January 25, 2025.

The meeting, presided over by His Imperial Majesty, Oba Olusegun Williams Akinyomi, the Amapetu of Mahin, was attended by various stakeholders, including Obas, Chiefs, leaders in politics, religion, serving and retired civil and public servants, women, and youth organizations.

Below is the full communique issued at the meeting:

COMMUNIQUE OF THE GENERAL MEETING OF THE PEOPLE OF MAHIN DESCENT HELD ON SATURDAY, THE 25TH DAY OF JANUARY 2025 AT ODE-MAHIN.

1.00 INTRODUCTION

1.01 The people of Mahin Kingdom in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State at a General Meeting held at Ode-Mahin its ancestral capital on Saturday the 25th day of January 2025, presided over by His Imperial Majesty, Oba Olusegun Williams Akinyomi, the Amapetu of Mahin and attended by other Obas, Chiefs, leaders in politics, religion, serving and retired civil and public servants, women and youths organisations considered issues of concern to the Kingdom especially the illegal appointment of a person of Ugbo origin as Oba in the Mahin town of ABOTO by the Ondo State Government.

1.02 In his opening address the convener, Pastor Oyekan Arije, Chairman of Mahin Central Organisation former President Egbe Omo Ilaje and former Chairman Nigerian Labour Congress Ondo State Council, stated  that having led the Ilaje nation particularly at the critical period of existential challenge to its territorial integrity he summoned  the Meeting in the interest of  Ilaje  unity that now at 86,  he could boldly stand before his creator and  our ancestors in the fullness of time that he did his best to keep our people together through mutual respects of the culture and territories of the constituent kingdoms.

1.03 The Meeting recounted the historical importance of Aboto as a Mahin community and noted that:

1.04   ABOTO an inland Mahin town in the largely riverine and coastal Ilaje Local Government is strategically located on the bank of the Mahin River along the ancient east-west trade route and served as the military headquarters of the Mahin nation which army  was led by Chief Idiogbe in several inter-ethnic  wars with the Itsekiri and Benin kingdom particularly during the reigns of  Oba Orhogbua of Benin  and his son and successor, Ehengbuda in their fatal military expeditions to Lagos.

1.05 ABOTO was also the base of Mahin forces in  the Mahin/Ijaw-Apoi territorial  wars which ended with the Covenant of Peace between Idiogbe of Aboto-Mahin and Agbileki of Igbobini-Ijaw-Apoi which symbol is the Aiyelala Deity.

1.06 ABOTO and Atijere another neighbouring Mahin town provided the ground for mobilisation during the Mahin/Epe war of 1842 as well captured in Samuel Johnson’s History of the Yoruba which blocked  access to Lagos from other parts of Nigeria and kept the Alafin of Oyo stranded at Ayesan for 20 days on his way to meet the representative of the British crown to discuss the end of Oyo/Dahomey war.

1.07 ABOTO was thus considered strategic for the signing of  the Treaty of Friendship and Protection between the Amapetu king  of Mahin and Queen Victoria of England on the 24th day of October 1885 which ceremony was hosted by the Amapetu’s appointed Baale Idiogbe (Dogbe) of Aboto  who also was signatory as a witness.

1.08 The Treaty which was the first signed by the British with any Nigerian native Kingdom after the Berlin Conference of the 26th February 1885 on the partition of Africa amongst European powers, also abolished  slave trade and human sacrifices in the whole of the riverine and coastal area of the present Ondo State.

1.09 The British/Mahin Treaty at ABOTO was  also   the basis of the extension of British colonial rule in 1895  covering  the whole area contiguous with the Lagos colony up to the boundary with Warri in a Joint Administration with Epe. It was the next territory after Lagos Colony of 1861 to experience British colonial rule in Nigeria.

1.10 Based on the ABOTO accord, the Amapetu of Mahin was amongst the earliest Traditional Rulers to be declared a Native Authority as part of British colonial rule being so declared in 1914, the year of Nigeria’s amalgamation and existence.

1.11 Under its customary law the ruler of  ABOTO shall be of Mahin origin and descent appointed by the Amapetu of Mahin as Prescribed Authority and in connection with which all the Baales and Olojas of  ABOTO from its  inception have consistently been appointed from the Idiogbe Family who originally hailed from the Ikokogbe Quarters in Ode Mahin.

1.12 When it was later decided by the people of Mahin that the Oloja of Aboto be upgraded to the status of an Oba the immediate two  successive Amapetu, Oba Festus Ololajulo Isogun (1997-2003) and Oba Lawrence Adetemi Omowole (2004-2017) in conjunction with the then Oloja of Aboto Beniah Adeola Idiogbe applied to government that the Oloja of Aboto stool be upgraded as a recognised chieftaincy as Alaboto of Aboto.

1.13 The Executive Council of Ondo State at its Meeting of 21st March 2007 while granting the request that the chieftaincy be recognised noted that “the Amapetu of Mahin (the Prescribed Authority) and the Ilaje Local Government Chieftaincy Committee had consented to the request for the recognition of the Alaboto of Aboto and upgrading to the status of an Oba”.

1.14 The declaration of the Alaboto as a Recognised Chieftaincy was duly finalised by the Akeredolu led Executive Council at its meeting of 15th day of August 2019 with the appointment of Oba Beniah Adeola Idiogbe as the Alaboto of Aboto in line with Customary Law and the Chiefs Law of Ondo State.

1.15 The stool became vacant on the 4th day of January 2021 at the demise of Oba Beniah Adeola Idiogbe, consequent upon which his daughter, Princess Olajiire Margaret Odusami- Idiogbe, was appointed on the 20th of January 2021 as the Regent in accordance with the Customary law.

1.16 In the absence of a Registered Declaration and in line with the Customary law of Aboto as part of the larger Mahin Kingdom Prince Ololade Smart Idiogbe was on the 12th November 2024 appointed by the accredited representatives of ABOTO Quarters as Kingmakers in which status he was presented to the Governor of Ondo State His Excellency Honorable Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa  as one of the eminent personalities of Ilajeland on his campaign tour of Ilaje Local Government during the recent Ondo State gubernatorial elections.

1.17 The history of the Ikohi family is well settled in Ilaje history even as recorded in archival records including the Ilaje Intelligence Report which describe Ikohi as a son of the Olugbo whose descendants during a crisis ran from Ugbo to Mahin kingdom and settled at Aluma camp of Aboto by the Amapetu from where they are now found at Aboto, Igbokoda and Igboegunrin “which  are predominantly Mahin communities”.

1.18 Contrary to their traditional refugee status, some Ikohi descendants in packages of falsehood before chieftaincy Commissions  backed with violence and supported by some officials of government have sought to be incorporated into the Aboto chieftaincy all of which antics ended in futility during the administrations of Chief Adebayo Adefarati, Olusegun Agagu, Olusegun Mimiko and Oluwarotimi Akeredolu.

1.19 After the shocking and illegal appointment of an Ugbo person as the Alaboto on the 9th of January 2025 the people of Mahin caused their solicitors to write to the Governor who on his  invitation on the 12th January told the Mahin delegation led by the Amapetu how he persuaded the late Governor Akeredolu in vain to appoint an Ikohi Ugbo person to succeed Oba Idiogbe and having now made the appointment, the Mahin people should go to court if not satisfied.

1.20 The unlawful imposition of persons from Ugbo on Mahin soil as traditional rulers will   have monumental implications for the chieftaincy architecture and peaceful co-existence in Ilaje land. That is why several communities in Ugbo founded by or predominantly of persons of Mahin origin have never challenged the Prescribed Authority of the Olugbo.

1.21 Even in new chieftaincies recognised in Ugboland since 2003 including the Olubo of Obe-Nla (the home town of Governor Ayedatiwa) Alagho of Odo-Nla and Odoka of Obe-Ogbaro, no person not historically associated, not even members from the female lineage, is allowed to be incorporated into their chieftaincy arrangements.

1.22 The Meeting noted that since the illegal inauguration of the imposed stranger Ikohi Ugbo  Oba the indigenous Mahin people have been subjected to series of attacks even as  the police for obvious reasons is handicapped.

2.0 RESOLUTIONS:

2.01 That ABOTO is home to people from different parts of Nigeria enjoying the hospitality of the people of Mahin and the Amapetu which guarantees peaceful co-existence of all but no person, not of Mahin origin, has ever been and shall never be ruler of Aboto.

2.02 That the imposition of the stranger Ikohi of Ugbo at  ABOTO is part of the grand agenda to protect illegal and primitive grabbing of land by people in high places and shall be resisted in perpetuity enduring all pains and deprivations by persons exercising transient powers.

2.03 That the official shenanigans in  ABOTO is not different from that of the Mahin town of Igbokoda where some known armed bandits and non-indigenes are encouraged to continually unleash violence on the Oba and his people making a large part of the town inaccessible in the illegal claim of land ownership despite clear judgements since 1917 and up to the Supreme Court. This too shall be resisted by Mahin including the manipulation of Commissions of Inquiry to create chieftaincies which are non-existent in customs and traditions.

2.04 That the Mahin people shall continue to resist these multiple assaults by the Ondo State Government on our history, customs and traditions which define our identity and existence no matter the pains, deprivation or even attractions.
Issued at Mahin this 25th day of January 2025.

High Chief Ebenezer Omosuyi
The Gbajewolu and Secretary Mahin Kingdom impostor king ordered his thugs daily to attack the indigenes even as reports to the police is unattended to.

2.00 That His Excellency Governor Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa is one of those who illegally acquired a large tract of land purportedly from the stranger Ikohi elements in Aboto and that the illegal appointment is to secure such investment and inaugurate an illegal, unprecedented and provocative Ugbo hegemony on Mahin soil.

3.0 Finally, let me say that the shenanigans at Aboto is part of the grand agenda to grab land in the Mahin towns of Aboto and Igbokoda by people not of Mahin origin but have official backings, including the abuse of Commissions of Inquiry to create chieftaincies for them on Mahin soil. Large parts of Igbokoda which territory has been defined in judgments since 1917 have been made perpetually inaccessible by institutionalised armed criminal gangs.

3.00 That Aboto is home to people from  different parts of Nigeria enjoying the usual hospitality of the people of Mahin and the Amapetu and peaceful co-existence of all. No one not of Mahin origin and appointed by the Amapetu has ever been ruler of Aboto and shall not be even now.

3.01 2.15 That the unlawful imposition of persons from Ugbo on Mahin soil as traditional rulers will   have monumental implications for the chieftaincy architecture and peaceful co-existence in Ilaje land. That is why several communities in Ugbo founded by or predominantly of persons of Mahin origin have never challenged the Prescribed Authority of the Olugbo.

4.0 Let no one be deceived that this Government will receive the blessings of any free-born Mahin person, no matter the attraction, or  deprivation until these multiple assaults  on our land and culture are rescinded.
God bless you all.

Pastor Oyekan Arije
Chairman Mahin Central Organisation.

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