Akoko Edo

Akoko Edo
LGA
Country	Nigeria
State	Edo State
Area
• Total	529 sq mi (1,371 km2)
Time zone	UTC+1 (WAT)

Akoko Edo is a Local Government Area in Edo State, Nigeria. Its headquarters is in the town of Igarra. It has an area of 1,371km² and a population of 262,110 at the 2006 census.

The postal code of the area is 312.

As of 2016, its population density is 249.9/km² [2016]^[1]

History[]

Akoko Edo is a community that consist of different and distinct parts of group each one maintaining its individualized identity with historic pride and enduring posture. It is conspicuously the land of Akoko Edo people of Edo State.^[2]

It is said that the earliest settlers of Akoko Edo were the Benins who would have been there the same period the Etsako people moved from Benin during the reign of Oba Ozolua (1483-1504). Other migrating people, due to the fortunes of time, came into the area. Thus, the spill-over of the Ekiti people known as Ado-Ekiti who by the way, are Edo people, who had settled at Ekiti found their way back into this area from the West.^[3] As a matter of fact, Ado-Ekiti and the whole of Ondo and Ekiti States were part of the old ^[4]Benin Empire. It is little wonder that part of Akoko-Edo still forms a part of the Ekiti area today. Of the Igbirra and Idah from the North and East, the war which Oba Esigie fought in 1515-1516 with the Attah of Idah would have brought a lot of migration into the area.^[5]

The Akoko-Edo was formally classified with those referred to as Ivbiesakon which came under the general terminology Kukuruku. The Akoko-Edo comprises of fourteen clans namely: Atte, Akoko-Edo Central, Akoko-Edo East, Akoko-Edo North, Akoko-Edo North-East, Ikpesi/Egbigele, Enwan, Igarra— Akuku,Kakumo-Anyanran, Okpe-Oloma, Okudoso, Ososo, Uneme-Central, Uneme North.^[6]

The ‘Akoko ‘has applied to the inhabitants of all these villages but no satisfactory explanation of its meaning and origin has been discovered. The most possible interpretation is that it is an onomatopoeia word “cork-e-doodle-do- and was applied by Ibadan raiders to the people they seldom say, but whose cock they heard crowing in their hiding places in the hills. The word ‘kukuru’ has been similarly interpreted. According to the authors of Akuku the book title The Land its Aborigionals Otaru J.A & Joseph S.I. They state that Akoko Edo literally means outskirt of Edo.^[7]

Geography[]

The Ancient Akoko-Edo area is situated in the northern part of Edo state in the south of the Niger-Benue Confluence. Its dominant geographical and environmental features comprise chains of ancient ridges of rugged rocky hills and a cave, stretching across the length and breadth of what is now known as the Akoko-Edo LGA of the present Northern Edo State, located between latitudes ${\displaystyle 6^{\circ }}$45 N ${\displaystyle 7^{\circ }}$ 35 N and longitudes ${\displaystyle 5^{\circ }}$55 E, ${\displaystyle 6^{\circ }}$45 E.^[8] Akoko-Edo, with a population of about 124, 000 by the 1991 census, and 261, 567 by the 2006 National Population Census, occupies a land area of about 1, 371 square kilometers or 6.5% of Edoland and constitutes about5.70% of Edo state population. The area is described as the ancestral homeland of all the sub-ethnic peoples who have been the speakers of the ancient language which is classified as Edoid.^[9] Akoko-Edo is bounded in the North by the present Kwara state and parts of the present Kogi state, in the north-west by the present Ondo state, in the south-east by both Etsako west (Auchiclans) and Etsako north (Okpella), and in the south-west by Owan.^[10]

Towns[]

The towns include Egbigere 1, Egbigere 2, Atte, Igarra, Enwan, Aiyegunle, , Ugboshi-Ele, Ekpesa, Ibillo, , Ikiran oke, Ekor, Somorika, Lampese, , , Uneme-Akiosu, Ososo, Akuku, Ojirami-Dam, Imoga, Eshawa, Ojirami-Peteshi Ojirami-Afe, Dagbala, Makeke, Ekpe, Ekpedo, Bekuma, Okpe, Ogbe, Onumu, Akpama, Anyonron, Ogugu, Ikakumo, , Oloma, Okunese, , uneme erhurun and Ikpeshi.^[11]

Language[]

The people of Akoko Edo speak Eight (8) distinct languages but overlapping occurs. The Ojiramis (Group II) for instance, understand their neighbours Akuku (Group III) and Enwan (Group I), but not the people in the other village. Yoruba is the major language and is understand by all. This has been necessitated by the incursion of the Yoruba traders who proved more intelligent and enterprising than the Local inhabitants but it seems also to have received official encouragement in early days. The District commissioner note in 1917 that he has fined the son of the “Headman” of Igarra £51 for refusing to try to speak Yoruba in court.^[12]

References[]

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