OSOLO OF Isolo

Isolo was founded by an Awori man from Ile-Ife called Akinbaiye who was a great warrior, hunter and farmer. He came with own Ifa oracle, which they consulted. It was his Ifa oracle that asked him to move along with Olofin, the progenitor of the Awori clan. Before he settled at Isolo, he first settled at Osoru Village, that is where we call the Jakande Estate now. As a great hunter, farmer and warrior, he decided to hunt around, looking for animals.

One day, he saw the footstep of an elephant; he was amazed that there was an elephant in the bush. He now moved around to make sure he saw the elephant and killed it. It was then he discovered that the elephant normally stayed by one river called Yewa. This river was a very big one; the elephant would come there with other elephants to drink water. He then decided to kill the elephant to show to other hunters that he was a great hunter. In those days, when someone killed a big animal like that you had to show, to the other hunters to prove your ability to them. He killed this elephant in front of Yewa River and he consulted his Ifa oracle and he was told to perform some rituals so as to appease the gods of the water. So he decided to slaughter the elephant and he now found out that all the cutleries he was holding were not sharp enough, so he decided to look around and in the process he discovered a grind­ing stone that was very big. 

He was amazed at the size of the rock. He climbed on the rock and called out to other hunters in the hope that he would get a helping hand, but nobody showed up. He now quickly sharp­ened all his cutleries with the stone, cut the elephant up and moved part of the meat back to home. He now told his family members and friends that he had killed an elephant and moved it to nearby Iso-olo (place of the great grinding stone).

He consulted his Ifa oracle, which told him he had finally arrived at his area of abode. Thereafter he moved his family down and started living beside the Oolo (grinding stone) so, any time his friend wanted to see him, he would tell them he had moved to Iso-olo. From then on the place was called Iso-olo, now Isolo. That was how Isolo came about, and the Osolo is the owner of Iso-olo area. 

All these thing he saw made Akinbaiye to go back to Ile-Ife and told the story to other members of his family who agreed to follow him down to Isolo. That was how Alagbeji followed him down to Isolo, later Okota also followed him and when they were com­ing they came with their wives and children. 

Adeola being a female was a princess from Ife who had just lost her father and her family had just decided to give them their own share of their father’s property, unknown to her that part of what they gave to her was a crown. She decided to look for Akinbaiye, be­ing somebody she knew very well. It was when they searched the load she brought from Ile-Ife that they saw the beaded crown and a woman cannot wear beaded crown in Awori land. They consulted the Ifa oracle, they performed some rituals and appeased the gods and they were told that the children could make use of the crown in future. 

Adeola was married Onigbesa, So when Adeola got children, they were three, Ogundamija, Aina-Igbeto and Aina-Eletu. When the place was expanding, Ogundamija was installed as the Oba then. Later, Alagbeji also told his own part of the history that he belonged to the royal family in Ile-Ife, which was traced and found to be true, so another person from Alagbeji became the Osolo after the demise of Ogundamija from Adeola ruling house. Later Okota, the most powerful among them, very powerful, also became the next Osolo after the demise of Alagbeji. 

So the rotation of the crown was done among these three royal families. Isolo has a very large firm. Akinbaye gave a lot of peoples land where they can farm. Isolo land extends up to the NNPC in Ejigbo, that place belongs to Fanime­won Family. In those days, there was the near farm and the far farm, up to Jakande Estate, up to NNPC Junction, down to Ajao Estate,  and had a common boundary up to Oshodi.  Olisi Onigbesa, the husband of Adeola, his the owner of Oshodi Land, up to the railway station, up to NITEL, down to Matori in Mushin all belongs to Onigbesa and Alagbeji also used to keep a farm in part of Ajao Estate in Mushin, down to Idi-Araba, Obele-Oniwahala, which all belongs to the people of Isolo, This was how Isolo became a cosmopolitan city. lsolo had a Baale in Mushin, Ajao Estate, also had  Baale in Mafoluku, and Okota. And those who came to farm with lsolo, they were domestic members of this community. The Ishaga people who are looking for a new settlement after the Dahomey war, went to Taiwo Olowo who brought them to Ishaga to farm and Isolo gave them some place where they could carry out farming. They are living within the lsolo area and they also have their own Baale there. Isolo is a very large place. have a common boundary with Isheri-Olofin, after Jakande Estate and the people of Ejigbo.

The founder of Isolo was pelebe who begat osolo and osolo begat ojomo who were all descendants of the slaves of the late madam Efunroye Tinubu, Suit No 124 of 1912 and suit no m2994 of 1945 refers, The meaning of Isolo is iso olo meaning market stalls where the granite rocks from abeokuta being carried by one of her slaves known as “pelebe” who was enslaved from iyangba in the present day Kogi state before he was being used by madam tinubu to  deliver the granite rocks  which was also used for grounding pepper and tomatoes in the old yoruba villages then.

The Taiwo Olowo was brought from isheri olofin now along Lagos Ibadan express way to lagos through Oworonshoki, Taiwo Olowo was a tribute collector for the late madam tinubu who was the only person known as Olowo where Taiwo Olowo got the title olowo from the super rich woman madam tinubu who used to send Taiwo Olowo in 1842 to collect debt proceeds from various debtors in Lagos then along the banks of the Lagos Island, (the 1942 of the London  evening  times publication referred to the  native African mode of transactions then) then not far from apongbon where the name was coined from the 1st British counsel to lagos then called Williams MC Corsky who was a white man with a brownish bear who was later given the name oyinbo aponirungbon because late madam tinubu couldn’t pronounced his name except through yorubanised description of aponigbon which later got translated into presently known as apongbon being a close neighbour to the late madam Efunroye Tinubu dwelling unit along the banks of the then lagos lagoon making her trading along the lagoon corridor easier which was the channel of communication between various interlands then.

As for the obele-oniwahala they were also the descendants of aboki bada from the ojomo eyeshadow generations which was artificially created in 1946 based on the terms of settlement between the slaves Descendants of the late madam Efunroye Tinubu who went to court in the suit 124 of 1912 and later went to between Fafunmi and Osu Apena who later went for the out of court settlement where the 52 other slaves were mentioned in for their incomplete payment to the privies of eyisha who went to the court which was being used by the present ojomo eyisha family to claim all the land that belongs to their forefather’s overlords which is madam Efunroye Tinubu. 

All those areas listed as part of the land ascribed to the Isolo people were captured by the late Herbert Macaulay’s survey in1912 where it was tendered to have belongs to the late madam Efunroye Tinubu including  four and half miles to the land in dispute which is now the present Odi Olowo in mushin.

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