Iloko Ijesa, the home town of foremost educationists, industrialists and business tycoons was on Saturday agog as the community celebrated it’s first “unity” New Yam Festival, after over 8 years of vacant traditional stool that deprived the community of development, unity and beneficial social amenities finally came together again to be one united community.
Recall that the Osun State Governor, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola on Saturday 24th July, 2021 coronated and presented staff & instrument of office to Oba Akeem Ogungbangbe as Owaloko of Iloko Ijesa.
New yam festival is an annual event aimed at thanking and appreciating God for a successful planting season and bumper harvest of farm produce.
Iloko Ijesa Community that prides itself as the ‘small Jerusalem’ of Osun State is no doubt deemed it necessary to follow suit by celebrating its own new yam festival with pomp and ceremony being the first to be celebrated by Oba Ogungbangbe after ascending the throne of his forefathers.
The Traditional Ruler of Iloko Ijesa, Oba Akeem Ogungbangbe while addressing the people stressed on importance of love, unity and peaceful coexistence among the people which according to him will usher in progress.
The monarch acknowledged that the festival which is fully rooted in culture and tradition from time immemorial is known in local parlance as Odun Ijesu and it’s being celebrated yearly.
Meanwhile, apart from the new yams being rolled out at the festival which was a harbinger of agricultural fecundity of the community, the monarch, his chiefs and other community residents, turned the event into a carnival like ceremony as they tropped out to witness the epoch making cultural event.
The major feature of the ceremony was the homage paid by the chiefs led by High Chief Shola Ogunsanya, the Orisa of Iloko Ijesa, traditional hunters, iyalojas, iyalajes (market women) and members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) serving in the community, among others.
The community ladies who decorated themselves with beads, stole the show with their dexterous dancing steps to which the Owaloko applauded.
