The residents of Ilaje Road in the Bariga Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Lagos State have rejected the renaming of the area as King Sunny Ade Road by the local council.

The aggrieved residents voiced their disagreement with this decision during a protest yesterday, describing it as unacceptable. Immediate past Chairman of the LCDA, David Alabi, had renamed the street, along with others in the area, last week amid protests by residents.

Addressing residents of the area before the protest around Ilaje Road, Kayode Ayetiwa, the Baale of Ilaje/Bariga Community, stated that the renaming was unacceptable. He added that the new Chairman of the LCDA, Bukola Adedeji, promised him over the phone that the decision would be reversed.

“The new chairperson of the council called me and asked us not to welcome her to office with a protest. She promised to address our concerns. But I informed her we would still protest in the area and submit a protest letter to the council.

“We will not allow them to change the heritage of our people, as the community came into existence in 1948 and it has always been called Ilaje Road, and we want it to remain that way,” he said.

In the protest letter signed by the monarch and others, the community expressed worry over the renaming of “Ilaje Road” by Alabi. They emphasised that “Ilaje Road” is a communal milestone and should not be replaced by an individual’s name, regardless of their fame.

The community urged the council to revert to “Ilaje Road” from “King Sunny Ade Road.” President General of Egbe Omo Ilaje, Raphael Irowanu, alleged a grand plan to erase Ilaje from the Lagos map, claiming that “the history of Lagos is incomplete without Ilaje people,” who make up about four million of the state’s population.

“Our forefathers were Obas in Ile Ife, Osun State. We are the original Yoruba, the true children of Oduduwa, not foreigners. They have been demolishing our settlements in Lagos. The renaming of ‘Ilaje Road’ as ‘King Sunny Ade Road’ is meant to cause a crisis because the popular musician is from Ondo State where we hail from. We are against the interest of Alabi because he is against our interest,” he said.

Some of the placards carried by the protesters read: “Ilaje Road, our history, our identity, we oppose renaming”, “We deserve better treatment”, “Ilaje is a tribe in Yorubaland”, and “We Ilajes say a capital NO to renaming, the road remains Ilaje Road, Bariga LCDA.”