The year 2025 is gradually rolling to an end, with the nation and her component states contending with various forms of social, political and economic ups and downs.
Amidst significant national and local issues, our Town, Esa Oke, is moving from one distressing loss of a son or daughter to another.
Frankly speaking, for Esa Oke, these past nine months have been rather traumatic, unusually damp, lugubrious and distressing.
What started as a promising year was interrupted by mayhem caused by what turned out to be an unfortunate Osun State Government Gazette notice announcing a total stranger, one Oluwatimileyin Ajayi as the Olojudo of Ido Aiyegunle. It lumped Ido-Aiyegunle (a community indigenous to the neighbouring Ekiti State) with the Obokun Local Government area of Osun State.
The community indigenous to Obokun Local Government area is Ido Ajegunle, a farming outpost of Esa Oke, which, from time immemorial, has belonged to the Isalu people of Odo Ese quarters of Esa-Oke.
This unfortunate faux paux threw the Esa Oke community into unimaginable chaos. Crisis erupted. Several lives were lost and properties worth several millions of naira were destroyed.
Despite the commendable efforts of the Osun State Government to douse the tension by setting up a five-man panel of enquiry headed by Hon. Ranti Oyewole, the imbroglio is yet to be fully resolved.
We at Esa Oke Today magazine, commiserate with our royal father, the Owamiran and his Council of Chiefs over the trauma they are going through while defending the sovereign integrity of the community.
On another very important matter, particularly concerning is the passing of luminous sons and daughters of the town between January and now.
Esa Oke Today Magazine notes the passing of Pa Micheal Ojo Faniyi (1934 – 2025). He was a civil servant based in Ibadan, Oyo State. Also, Chief Ayotunde Ogunleye (1946 – 2025). Chief Ogunleye was a retired educationist, community leader and a committed Church leader. He was the Lisa of Kajola town, a satellite village in Esa Oke, and also deputy to the Baba Ijo of the St. Paul Anglican Church, Esa Oke.
Another sad passage is that of Prince Adeyemi Adesuji Isiah Omowumi (1960 – 2025). Prince Omowumi passed away in London a few days ago. He was a top insurance executive in Lagos before relocating to the United Kingdom.
The town has also lost a versatile local adamo singer, Ayantunji Ojo-Salako, (1962 – 2025) popularly called Ayan Ejelu. His death is a major loss to the social life in our community, just like the death of Sadenson, Chief Aderemi Afolami, (1963 – 2025), who was the Obalogbo of Esa Oke that the Asaba of Esa Oke installed, but was controversially denied official recognition.
The deaths of these eminently luminous sons only signposts the horrors of losses the community has suffered this year alone.
We at Esa Oke Today Magazine share in the griefs of their families, friends, and acquaintances, while bemoaning the loss of their invaluable contributions to the growth and development of our community.
Esa Oke Today Magazine mourns their deaths, and prays that the Almighty God will stop untimely deaths in our community.
Adieu, our dear departed compatriots.