Have you travelled to or visited Ogombo community in Ajah lately? Do you also know that, Ogombo community is one of the oldest towns in Eti-Osa local council? For those who don’t know much about Ogombo, we will tell you about the community.
Ogombo community is one of the towns under Eti-Osa East Local Government. It’s a five minutes drive from the popular housing estate, Abraham Adesanya, in Ajah.
The community has been in existence since 1765. Currently, real estate activities are on the rise in the community after many years of crisis.
Now, peace and calmness has returned to the community. “People now live together in peace. The intervention of Senator Buruji Kashamu was instrumental to the present peace in the community.
The community has 2 ruling houses; Odufua and Adelaru ruling houses. In 2009, when the late, (Baale) Chief Amballi Bakare, died, crisis erupted; the sons of the late Baale said the death of their father came too early and claimed that he had been killed and since then the community has not had a leader.
Ogombo had, been in existence as far back as 1765. The man, Abiodun Ogudu, who was the founder was a great hunter. He left the war zone during the tribal war in Yorubaland, which they called “Ogun Alada”. Then, all the areas in Yorubaland that had been ceded to Dahomey were under one empire. During the tribal war, he had to leave that axis for Lagos. He passed through the creeks from Marina down to a place called Okunmopo. At Okunmopo were fishermen, but he was a hunter. So he couldn’t live with them; he had to go to a thick forest where he killed a big Elephant. He shot the elephant with his gun and as the elephant was trying to escape with the bullet wound it fell a big tree while striving for survival. The elephant fell a tree that had a big shade and that spot today is called ‘Oju Ogun’ of Ogombo.
After so many years of hunting and going round, people whom he came across kept asking where he lived. He told them he was living under a big tree called ‘Abe’gi-Gombo’ and that was how the name Ogombo came to be according to Chief Wakili.
Few days ago, City People Senior Reporter, ISAAC ABIMBADE, visited Ogombo community, and spoke with one of the biggest land owners in the community, who wouldn’t want his name mentioned. He revealed some of the challenges facing the community.
“One of the challenges in Ogombo is that, Ogombo has 2,066 hectares of land, government only released 5.11 hectares of land. So, over 1,000 hectares was acquired by Lagos State Government. This has saddened some of the land owners in Ogombo, because most of them have been deprived of their land.
“Remember that there was a crisis in town years ago, which made a lot of people to lose their land to land-grabbers. Right now, almost 80 percent of Ogombo land is being developed, but one of the major challenges is road network. The only major road we have is the road from the Abraham Adesanya Estate to this community, and it is not even wide enough. Another road we have is a road from Sangotedo-Ogombo road, but it is in a bad state.
A lot of people have property to develop, but the state of the road has made them abandon the project. Another problem facing the community is the issue of electricity. It is not constant.
Does he think that lack of constant electricity supply and bad road contribute to the poor value on land in the community?
Yes! It has affected it. Land is undervalued in Ogombo. The major challenge we have is that, there is no good road and when there is no good road, it engenders poor valuation of land. And that is the complaint of people who want to invest in Ogombo. Most of the stakeholders pay tax to Lagos State Government, upon that nothing is done. Second, what about a large expanse of land taken by Lagos State Government? What are they doing to compensate the customary owners?
We also heard that part of the land was given to Senator Kashamu?
Some of the elders in the community, when there was crisis, came together and met with Kashamu to help them reclaim their land from land grabbers. He was given power of attorney. Kashamu was promised that he would be given a portion of land if he could help them reclaim the land.
What is the price of a plot of land in Ogombo?
It varies. Some of our land facing the Ibeju Lekki/Epe road, they now go for around 50 million naira per plot, but in Ogombo community itself, you can get it 7 to 8 million naira, which is relatively low. A lot of people bought the land during the crisis, but none of them has developed their plots.
What is the future like for Ogombo community?
We hope that Lagos State Government would come to our aid. On the portion of the land taken away by government, maybe government can release part of it to us, he pleaded.
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