Sea Incursion: Ondo Youths Call For State Of Emergency In Ilaje Community

By Ayodele Oni

Youths, in the coastal area of Ondo State, have   pleaded with the Federal and State Governments to save Ayetoro community in Ilaje Local Government Area from total extinction due to sea incursion.

The youths appealed to Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa to declare a state of emergency over the incessant sea incursion ravaging the community.

Spokesman for the youths, Thompson Akingboye, pointed out that “More than 5,000 people have been displaced, landlords have become tenants in their hometown, and many people are left without a home, sleeping wherever they can.

“On behalf of Ayetoro community, we demand for a shoreline protection project to extricate the community from sliding into extinction.”

According to him, the ocean surge has wrecked havoc on the theocratic community, destroying properties worth billions of naira, including more than seven hundred residential houses, schools, shrines, maternity centres, and other small-scale factories established by the community.

Ayetoro community is an oil-producing community located along the coastline of Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State in Nigeria.

The community, which is located 150km east of Lagos State, came into prominence in the 1950s and 1960s after achieving self-sustenance through sheer communitarian cooperation driven by an ideology rooted in the principle of faith and work.

Due to its landmark achievements in self-sustenance through communalism, it quickly became a national and international reference point for rapid development, thereby attracting visitors from within and outside Nigeria.

It is renowned for its tech-driven communal development, unique Christian living, and for putting Nigeria in the comity of boat-building nations. It was a hub of tourism before the discovery of oil.

Ayetoro lived in peace and serenity until oil attracted the government. The land was distorted, the sea rose, and began to intrude into the town. Houses have gone, people are dying.

In recent years, the community has faced incessant sea attacks, which have on many occasions resulted in the rapid destruction of properties worth billions of naira and the forceful relocation of several indigenes due to the destruction of over seven hundred houses, including schools, factories, and maternity centres.

The land continues to be eroded, houses continue to collapse into the sea, and people continue to die.

Well-meaning indigenes and groups have staged several protests and petitions to the government at all levels, yet nothing has been done.