The History Of Sango Ota: Evergreen History Of One Of The Yorubas that can not be wiped off.

History of Sango Ota still remains evergreen until the arrival of Christianity and some Christian missionaries that most fetish traditions came to a halt. Sango Ota which was formerly called ‘Erinko Ota’ is a geographical area in Ogun State Nigeria which is inhabited by the Egba people or the Egba clan as it is being called. It was formerly known as Ketere which later gave birth to the name “Sango Ota”.

This history of Sango Ota can be as wide and broad as any thing else. They had lot of war, lineage clash and some other thing which they did to win their boundaries and gather a name for themselves.

Once upon a time when the Hausas came into the Sango Ota land to explore it’s rich virginity of land and also see if they can gather some things as fruit frim the land, they started to call Sango Ota, Sabo which have rise to it’s popularity.

The name that Sango Ota was formerly know as Erinko Ota was derived from the first family clan that first came in to the virgin land filled with evergreen trees and open lands for better cultivations.

They were the Erinko family clan from the Imakpa and Ijana family compound. Oral historians has formerly said that the greater grand parents of Akilo family had earlier farmed on the lands of Ota before it was passed on to the Erinko family that later also accepted to come into Ota land and dwell.

Oral historians have it that, Akilo and his generation was wiped out but Erinko was almost the only responsible family member that can come and inhabit the land. Erinko was very happy that he was given the opportunity to gain the massive land.

Nevertheless, Erinko is still called the father of Sango Ota. His name was used firstly before any other name because after the oral historian speech, some inhabitants never believed that such happened, they only believed that the Erinko family started off Sango Ota with their little or no capacity of forming a bigger known community.

History Of Sango Ota: The entry of the colonial masters

In 1999 when the colonial masters that had colonized Nigeria and some other troupes like the early missionaries,the Portuguese explorers and some slave merchants, the colonial masters especially started to make moves on how to make a construction that will aid Nigeria.

This made lot of treaties to be assigned with some land owners in the West with the likes of; The Ólówú of Ówu, The Alàké of Égbaland, The Ólota of Óta and some other Baale’s that made signatories and had their selves attached to the land treaty because the land that was spoken of was mostly that of the Egba kingdom and it’s surrounded environs.

Later on, they brought in surveyors and engineers to take the land map of Sango and after all said and done, they sited a space which was more convenient for them to make the construction.

The place which is now the environs that houses both the Sango Ota bridge, the Sango Ota present Area Police Command was the place housing the ticket booth as of then.

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This railway station was built according to the signatory of the Egba Kingdom kings and rulers of the then Egba land, this also included some top land owners and others such as Baales in Ota.

History Of Sango Ota: How Sango Ota was founded

The indelible history of Sango Ota has many stories behind it’s creation and this happened because there were no records kept in remembrance as there were more of oral historians than those who have written the history as books.

So most of the oral historians have died or have become too old to tell what they have said while the next generation that was told the story would also find what to add their own part of the story that never existed.

An oral historian told our Scholars Learn correspondence that in 1856 ( not really precise about the year) when the then ruler of Lagos State, Óba Akintoyé was removed from his throne due to some calamities that befell upon him revolving around the throne

So being an indigene of Ówu in Abeokuta, Óba Akintoyé ran to that place with some groups of men in order to hid and protect himself for fear of the Lagosians.

His people, the Owus were known to be great fighters and warriors that they decided to go to Lagos and seek for what the matter was because they were very much prepared to fight just to see that he becomes Óba again.

On their way back to seek revenge for Óba Akintoyé, the journey was not an easy one, so they had to make a small camp at Igbo Ólówu which was later called “Sango Ota” after they had finished the construction of the railway.

The Government Interest In Sango Ota

After the colonial masters, explorers and others from abroad gas taken interest in Sango Ota and has developed the flair of constructing a major railway station, in 1912, the government now decided to make a road interlinking network that will link Abeokuta,Sango and Lagos State together this they later called the ‘Trunk A’ road project.

Later on, the railway station that was built in Sango Ota started to lose value as it wasn’t operating most at times, need made it that the British Police made a joint task force with the Nigerian Police Force and they converted it to a Police station for permanent stay.

All these development brought in lots of people from afar both the early Hausas and other tribes that came into Sango Ota to dwell. One of the first set of persons that bought land and built a house in Sango Ota was actually a road worker who had joined in building the Trunk A project of the interlinking between Abeokuta and Lagos State.

His name was Albert Àjenifuja who luckily was an influx of the Egba settlers and hailed from the them Otun Àyegbajo Ekiti.Albert Àjeifuja was later installed as the Baale of Sango Ota as someone who knows places and the dos and donts of the land. Then after that, the Igbiras and others followed suite before a massive increase came in due to the fast development going on.