Brief History of Ilupeju-Ekiti town
Ilupeju Ekiti is in Oye Local Government area of Ekiti State in the South Western Nigeria. It falls within the ekiti speaking area of Yoruba land. The town is bounded in the east by Itapa Ekiti, to the west by Oye-Ekiti to South by Ire-Ekiti and to the North by Imojo Ekiti. The Ilupeju Day Celebration has over the years become a veritable tool for sons and daughters of the town at home and abroad to celebrate the rich culture, unity and tradition as well as other unique attributes of the town. It is also a forum for indigenes and their friends to contribute to the development of the town through donation in cash and kind to newly initiated and ongoing development project in the community. The Ilupeju Day Celebration is usually a weeklong programme of events sponsored by the IDA National that encapsulates a Jumat Service, a Thanksgiving Service, a Football Competition among quarters in the town, Provision of free medical tests and treatment, Bursary Awards to Students and other empowerment programmes as well as a fund raising ceremony towards a particular developmental project within the town. Proceed of the Ilupeju day celebration had over the years been used to construct the town’s Ultra Modern Palace, Civic Centre, Chief Magistrate court and the ongoing Menara Market Modernization Project
The climate of the town is topical with temperatures ranging from 70 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit during the coolest and honest month of the year. Ilupeju-Ekiti lies on the strategic Lagos-Abuja Highway. Its geographic location is unique as the town is almost equidistant from Nigeria’s economic capital, Lagos and the Federal capital, Abuja. Ilupeju-Ekiti lies approximately on latitude 7.46 north of the Equator and longitude 5.21 East of the Greenwich meridian.
TRADITIONAL ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE OF THE TOWN
Following the demise of his highness Taiwo Alonge in June 2013, a new Obanla of Ilupeju Ekiti emerged in March, 2016. On the 18th August 1981, the Governor of old Ondo State Chief Adekunle Ajasin represented by His Deputy, Chief Akin Omoboriowo presented the instrument of appointment and Staff of Office to first Apeju of Ilupeju Ekiti, Oba Olaleye Oniyelu at a colourful ceremony in Ilupeju Ekiti. A trained teacher, Prince Emmanuel Olayele Oniyelu of the defunct Eseta emerged as the Apeju of Ilupeju in 1980 while Prince Taiwo Alonge of the erstwhile Egosi as the Obanla of Ilupeju Ekiti. The unification memorandum which was approved and officially gazette in 1974 by the Government merged the two class B royal stools into the Apeju of Ilupeju Ekiti. The stool is structured such that the person who will succeed the incumbent will come from the Obanla ruling house. Even since the amalgamation, the town has remained as a strong, indivisible, and indissoluble entity.
The Apeju of Ilupeju-Ekiti, His Royal Majesty, Oba Emmanuel Olaleye Oniyelu II, JP, FCIPA
The Obanla of Ilupeju-Ekiti, His Highness David Sunday Awe
TOURISM
The town has a lot of tourist sites. These include the oroke ejia, the granite tosk situated at aita which the Eseta warriors used as an eeffective military platform to mount surveillance and launch counter attacks against approaching enemy forces during the intertribal wars in Yoruba land. The town has over 32,000 inhabitants with a large chunk of the indigenes of ilupaju-ekiti residing within the outside Nigeria. The major streams, springs and brooks in ilupeju-ekiti include: etikun, obunkolamum, aseo, egbudu, omi orisa, omi lila, umojan, omi abidan, omi esinskun, omi ona akodi and others
OCCUPATION
The indigenes and residents of Ilupeju Ekiti mainly Famers, Pretty Traders, Civil Servants Teachers and Pensioners. Ilupeju indigenes embraced western education and the community has produces intellectual and professional in all fields of human endeavors, Farming is however a major occupation of residents of the town. A wide variety of food and cash crops such as yam, maize cassava, cocoa, oil palm, kola nuts plantain and citrus fruits are planted and large quantities by indigenes and residents of the town.
