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By:
Amb. Hassan Adeiza Ozigis
NAES President Unijos Chapter,
Director of Media and Publicity Y. E. M National Secretariat.
... Ajaokuta Local Government Area is presently one of the 'Five' Local Government Areas alloted to Kogi Central (Ebiraland) area of Kogi State.

Ajaokuta Local Government was created from Okene Local Government Area on 27th August, 1991 and has it’s headquarters at Adogo.

The Local Government is in the Central Senatorial District of Kogi State and covers a landmass of 1,088 square kilometers.

Ajaokuta Local Government is bounded to the North East by Lokoja LGA, Bassa Local Government to the North West, Ofu Local Government to the East and South-West by Okene and Adavi Local Government Areas respectively.

Ajaokuta Local Government Area has three districts namely, Ajaokuta, Eganyi and Ebiya.

The Local Government Ajaokuta has long been existing as a territory under the then Ebira which was part of the old Kwara State prior to 1991 when the forceful Marriage of the Igalas extracted from the old Benue was done.
The giant Iron and Steel Company of the Nation is located in Ajaokuta Local Government Area.

It is worthy to note that an area known as Upake in Ajaokuta very close to the River Niger was the first area of Settlement of the father of Ebiraland (Adayi Itaazi) after moving from the then Idah to cross the Niger River to settle at the present Opete area where the Ebiras reside today in Kogi State, settling at Upake his sons were great hunters who hunted for games at the areas now known as Geregu and Etube (hunting area) now corrupted as Itobe by the Colonial rulers, the Son spread across the Opete area for hunting which would later form the other parts of Ebiraland, Okooro une (Area of Rodents) corrupted as Okene, Adaviruku (Father is forest) now corrupted as Adavi, Iruku ozeyihi (Forest of the way home) now corrupted as Ihima, Ataba Okeyihi (The mountain facing downward) now Corrupted as Okehi, Uka angwe (Oil Refinery) now corrupted as Okengwe, Oganyi (The one hanging on the teeth) now corrupted as Eganyi and many more other places that formed the Ebira Opete of today the Central part of Kogi Central.

The Ajaokuta is a corrupt word of 'Aja Ooku uta (a bird perches on the Stage).

If the Ajaokuta had been a land belonging to the Igalas as claimed today, what was the state of the land prior to the merging of the different entities to form Kogi State today, the Igalas have been under the then Benue State and the Ebiras in the old Kwara while Ajaokuta area was a part of Okene Local Government in Kwara, even after the creation of Kogi State and after the creation of Ajaokuta as a Local Government it fell under the Central part with no argument until 2017 when the Igalas had laid a claim of ownership of the land against the Attorney General of the Federation which the court had recently ruled in favor of the Igalas.

Was Ajaokuta a part of Benue? Where was the Igala when Late Alh. Abdulazeez Attah the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation was at a war to see the giant Steel Industry located in Ajaokuta marked in Kwara then? Where was the Igalas when the Local Government Areas were created and alloted at the early times of creation of Kogi State?

The history backup should be provided now and the fight should begun, let's start the movement to reclaim the going land with a large deposit of potentials.

It is glaring that the wrong deed has been done by the past Leaders (Traditional and Political) who showed levity and no interest in protecting the boundaries of Kogi Central that was so much protected by the then Ohinoyis of Ebiraland (Ibrahim Onoruoiza and Sanni Omolori) before the present occupier of the stool (Ado Ibrahim) took over and things began to go awry and fall apart.

This is a great lesson to teach us to start the reawakening of our dead histories, cultures and traditions.

Let's attach values to every little thing at our disposal for posterity sake, histories should be well documented and intellects should at all cost protect our common heritage and ancestral homes.

The Prominent Sons and Daughters of Ebiraland should be awake now to prove their love for Ebiraland.

We are losing a precious gift at a time it is well needed.

Do not sit to watch what was given to us by our fathers taken away from us.

History is alive, let's go to it.

AJAOKUTA BELONGS TO EBIRA.