Awori Indigenes and some notable traditional rulers and stakeholders from Kosofe Local Government and Somolu such as the Onikosi, Oba Samuel Alamu Oloyede, his Ketu counterpart, His Royal Majesty Oba Isiaka Balogun Oyero; Oloworo of Oworo, HRM Oba BashirOloruntoyin Saliu; House of Assembly aspirants, Hon. Yacoob Balogun and others have kicked against the proposed Lagos Assembly Delineation Bill that seeks to delineate and readjust the five administrative divisions in the state.

The Lagos State divisions, IBILE, were created in May 1968, by virtue of Administrative Division (Establishment) Edit No. 3, 1968. The purpose of which is for administrative convenience, by bringing people of the same culture and traditional background together to form a Division. Hence, the people of Kosofe, who are mainly Aworis were brought together alongside other Awori communities, such as Agege, Ikotun, Iba, Isheri, Egan, Isolo and others to form the Ikeja Division.

An Indigenous group under the auspices of the Awori Indigenous Forum, AIF, have vehemently kicked against the controversial Delineation Bill by the Lagos State House of Assembly, seeking the merger of Kosofe and Somolu local governments with the Ikorodu division. In a press statement signed by Chief Akintola Kamorudeen Balogun, the president of the forum, he noted that their forum negates the Bill which seeks to move Kosofe and Somolu from the Ikeja to the Ikorodu division in its entirety.

“It is worthy to note that the plot by the sponsors of this Bill is to subjugate the Awori indigenes in Lagos, else, the government should be sensitive to merge Somolu and Kosofe LGs, which consists of Awori indigenes, if any new divisions are to be created.

Anything contrary to this will mean that our representatives in the Lagos State House of Assembly are not representing us well. And the plot to subjugate and weaken the Aworis in Lagos by splitting and merging us with areas where we will be minorities. The intimidation and marginalization of our people in these areas will be of the highest order, and we have resolved to vehemently resist.

“The urgency at which the Bill was introduced, passed through the first and second reading in a day, corroborates our fears that the Speaker is using the instrumentality of the legislature to promote a political agenda.

We want to implore the sponsors of the Bill, the Honorable Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, and other members of the House to jettison this Bill, because it is dead before arrival. This is the collective take of all the indigenes of Kosofe and Somolu local governments, he said.

Kosofe Inside-Out reached out to the two representatives of Kosofe at the Lagos State House of Assembly, we were able to speak with the newly sworn-in lawmaker, Honorable Femi Saheed, who represents Kosofe Constituency 2, he noted that he is for his Kosofe people. In his words, “when a Bill is being subjected to debate by the people I represent, it is for me to stand on the side of my people. I would have been glad to state the merits and the demerits of such Bill at the press conference which was held by the Awori indigenes of Kosofe. Honorable Okanlawon Sanni, who represents Kosofe constituency 1 at the House of Assembly, was not responding to telephone calls from Kosofe Inside-Out, as at the time of publishing this report.