Alara of Ilara Hails Emergence of Charles Keshinro As Epe ICAN Pioneer Chairman

Alara of Ilara, Oba Olufolarin Olukayode Ogunsanwo.

Gives Update on Solutions to Land Grabbing Menace.

By Babatunde Kaka

The Alara of Ilara Kingdom, Oba Olufolarin Ogunsanwo, has lauded the emergence of High Chief Charles Keshinro ( FCA ), as the Pioneer Chairman of Epe ICAN & District Society.

Oba Ogunsanwo who spoke with Ekohotblog in an interview expressed delight at the choice of one of his Chiefs, describing him as the perfect choice.

Oba Ogunsanwo, who doubles as vice Chairman, Lagos State Council of Obas and Chiefs, said Keshinro’s emergence as ICAN leader in Epe was a pointer to the institute’s resolve to have right people in right position.

Olufemi Keshinro

” I feel highly elated and like I told the President when she visited me, it is a case of putting a round peg in a round hole. He’s a very energetic man, he’s cerebral, he’s brilliant and that’s why we’re all here with my Alara in Council to support him. Being the Pioneer Chairman is not an easy task but I know that almighty God will be with him and he’ll do very well”, he stated.

Oba Olufolarin, a taxation specialist, who retired from the Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) further reeled out the benefits of the Institute to Epe Division. Notable among them include; helping young people in robust training programmes, the capacity programme for both private and public sector practitioners and establishment of an Examination Centre for prospective students here in Epe rather than elsewhere.

The land-grabbing menace

Oba Ogunsanwo gave an update on the menace of land grabbing, where he intimated ekohotblog on plans to combat the hydra-headed menace in conjunction with traditional leaders, security agencies, Local and the State Government. This is against the backdrop of SOS messages being sent to the Lagos State Government by families, landowners and communities.

” The issue of land grabbing has become a menace and stems from the fact that the youths are not willing to work. So, some of these youths have kingpins and godfathers that engage them as thugs”, Alara stated.

He, therefore, highlighted actionable solutions put in place to curb the menace to the barest minimum. This, he said, will begin to manifest in no time.

” On our part as royal fathers, we have been meeting and we’ve been discussing it up to the local government level and we’ve also taken some steps which will begin to manifest so that this issue will be a thing of the past “.

” We are also engaging security agencies as well. We have encouraged all royal fathers to take stock of all the lands under their domain to know what belongs to who. We’ve advised that they carry out a land audit with a view to knowing who exactly owns what and then, they can now begin to take authority over anywhere that might be prone to land grabbing “, he asserted.

Alara averred that people would want to tilt towards land grabbing which isn’t an in-thing in the Epe-Eredo axis, stating that it comes with development. He noted that the availability of land as an integral factor of production or business has become an issue because Epe is developing. This, he likened to the coming of the Refinery, Free Trade Zone and other infrastructural development.

“It is our responsibility to ensure that it does not degenerate to a state where people will be killing themselves or there will be violence in any of our communities”, Oba Ogunfolarin asserted.