The youths of Igbomina descent in the Kwara South district of Kwara State, under the umbrella of the Igbomina Youth Assembly, have urged Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq to reconsider the decision to acquire Igbomina land for the Ilorin Smart City project.

Addressing journalists in Ilorin, the group’s chairman, Olugbenga Friday Ajibola, explained that the appeal was made in the interest of maintaining peace and harmony within the community.

While expressing support for the project itself, the youth assembly requested that the 19,301 hectares earmarked in Ifelodun Local Government Area for inclusion in the Ilorin Smart City be excluded from the initiative. They emphasized their desire to ensure the project does not infringe upon the ancestral lands of the Igbomina people.

Members of the youth group, who said that they are not against the project, added that the 19,301 hectares, marked out in the Ifelodun local government area to be part of the Ilorin Smart City, be exempted from the project.

“To the government and our amiable governor of the state, Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, we the entire youth of Igbominaland (home and abroad) crave your understanding on this issue. We believe you are a peace-loving governor and father to all citizens and residents of the state, and no father will wish or take any step that could lead to anarchy or disharmony under his watch.

“Projects such as Ilorin Smart City on Igbominaland is capable of creating disharmony among the citizens of the state. We, therefore, call on His Excellency to please, as a father to all in the state, to call whosoever or government agency responsible for this to order.

“In clear term, while we are not opposing the project in its entirety, we are requesting that the 19,301 hectares marked out in Ifelodun Local Government to be part of the Ilorin Smart City be exempted from the project.

“If there is still life, there is hope” for Igbomina people; it is just a matter of time. A time will come when the development of other senatorial districts of the state will be of paramount importance to the government of Kwara state. We rather wait till then than concede our heritage to other communities in the name of developmental project,” Ajibola said.

Ajibola described the Igbomina Youth Assembly as the unifying body for the community-based youth organisation in rural, semi-urban and urban areas of Igbominaland with an estimated population of 65,500 nominal members covering geographical areas of the South and the Central senatorial districts of Kwara state and by extension Osun state.