THE LAND AND THE FOLKS: A SYNOPTIC HISTORY OF ILAJE-ETIKAN, ONDO STATE, SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA - S. OLA AJIMISAN.

Historical and Geographical Identity of Ilaje-Etikan

Who are the people of Ilaje-Etikan? The people of Ilaje-Etikan, like other Yoruba sub-groups, have their origin or root traced to Ile-Ife, the cradle and the source of all people of Yoruba ascendancy both in Nigeria and elsewhere around the globe. They were a segment of the aboriginal settlers who lived in Ile-Ife before the advent of Oduduwa from the Middle East. They were a part of the people known and addressed as the Igbo/Ugbo or U/Igbomekun (Ugbomokun) constantly misconstrued to be the Igbo/Ibo or Ndigbo of the present day South-eastern Nigeria. Back then in the ancient city of Ile-Ife, they were found at Oramfe, Ideta, Ilare, Ido Quarters and the area around the present day Oja Ugbomokun/Igbomekun in the modern day Ile-Ife (Egboworomo, 1999). 

They were part of the Ugbo extraction who constantly raided and attacked Ile-Ife as a way of registering their displeasure towards Oduduwa's usurpation of the existing social, traditional and political structure in Ile-Ife. According to S.Ola Ajimisan (2012 & 2016), when Oronmaken, from the lineage of Oramfe Onile-ina (Olule-una or Eleta-una in Ilaje dialect) translated to mean the one with the house of fire or bullets of fire and Obamakin Osangangan led an exodus of large kiths of the Yoruba folks out of at about 800-1000 AD, Erede, Oronmaken's younger brother,who later established the present-day Etikan Kingdom and the first Olikan of Etikan Kingdom,was one of the prominent princes of Ile-Ife who left with him.They were said to have left Ile-Ife, the cradle of human existence and civilisation at the same time with the first Oba of Benin, Orinua, pronounced as Orinuwa or Orinugha in Ilaje dialect. Akintoye had earlier postulated that Oduduwa met some people at Ile-Ife when he arrived there (32-33). The following questions will help illuminate our understanding of the pre-Oduduwa history of Ile-Ife regarding who the aboriginal settlers of the city were. The questions are:

i. Was Oduduwa the founder of Ile-Ife?

ii. Did he migrate to Ile-Ife?

iii. When he got to Ile-Ife, did he meet some people there?

iv. Who were they and what was their identity?

v. When he usurped the existing socio-cultural structures that he met on ground in the city, did he totally exterminate all the aborigines that he met there?

vi. If he did not, where are the remnants of those aborigines scattered in Nigeria and anywhere around the globe?

 vii. Do the people still agree to be called Yoruba wherever they are or have they renounced both Ile-Ife ascendancy and Yoruba descent?

Finding answers to these questions will go a long way in illuminating our understanding of the history of the Yoruba people (Ajimisan 2019 & Akinruntan 2019). Back to the first question, Oduduwa was not the founder of the ancient city of the Yoruba, called Ile-Ife. Ile-Ife had been in existence for a very long time before his (Oduduwa’s) migration from either the Middle East, or Benin as contained in the Benin Oral Tradition. In Benin Tradition propagated by Jacob Uwadiae Egharevba, Oduduwa was an outlawed Benin prince named Ekhaladerhan (Egharevba 1953 1968; 1971; & Erediauwa 2004). He, according to the Benin Tradition, got to Ile-Ife at the time the people and the city were in dire need of a belligerent warlord and leader to lead them against external aggressors and assailants. When he got to Ile-Ife, he met a sprawling city of about sixteen (16) already existing different communities with a democratically centralized rotational monarchical form of leadership. Odia Ofeimun (2016) also adds that before the advent Oduduwa, sixteen kings (Olufes) had reigned and that Obatala was was the last and the incumbent leader at the advent of Oduduwa. Of note, history has it that he met a diviner whose name was Agboniregun or Setilu. In the opinion of Ofeimun, no doubt, Setilu or Agboniregun was plying his vocation of divination among the people now christened and identified as the Yoruba in the present-day southwestern Nigeria (Ofeimun 2016). So, how Oduduwa, who met a sprawling city when he migrated there became the "father" of the original inhabitants of this same city is nothing but a great puzzle.

Whether Oduduwa, Izoduwa or Ekhaladerhan /Ogwugwa, as contained in the Benin tradition, migrated from Benin or Mecca is not of interest to this research. What is of historical essence is that he migrated from somewhere before arriving at Ile-Ife. Now to the question of whether Oduduwa exterminated all the aborigines that he met in Ile-Ife or not, he did not. The people that he met, who could not tolerate the reign of a migratory or nomadic stranger and the betrayal of their kinsmen, who turned against the indigenous leadership in order to support a stranger left the city. They left with all necessary royal and traditional paraphernalias with a view to establishing their own autonomous kingdoms, which they consequently did elsewhere. Oronmaken, who later became the founder or father of the present-day Ugbo Kingdom and the first Olugbo of Ugboland was one of those who left Ile-Ife at the same time and for the same reason. Erede, the younger brother of Oronmaken, the father of the present-day Etikan Kingdom and the first Olikan of Etikan Kingdom was also one of those who left Ile-Ife at the same time with Oronmaken to establish his own autonomous kingdom. 

Onleaving IIe-Ife, they first settled at Oke Mafunrangan (high hill) in the present-day Ile-Oluji/Oke-igbo, which they used as observatory post, from which they constantly returned to raid Ile-Ife on every market day until Moremi Ajasoro rose to rescue them. Oronmaken, Erede and their itinerant entourage fled Oke Mafunrangan and surged southwards towards the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and places of great body of waters. Atabout 1030 AD, Oronmaken founded a new kingdom and retained the original name U/Igbo, with which they were known at Ile-Ife. The new settlement was a littoral habitation with fishing, hunting and gathering as staple occupations. The train first settled at Ugbo-Akete or Ode-Ugbo together. Soon afterwards, Erede left for a new location towards the extreme western end of the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and established his own autonomous kingdom, named Etikan Kingdom, with the headquarters of the kingdom first at Ugbo-Etikan and subsequently to Ode-Etikan. At Ode-Ugbo and Ode-Etikan, the people continued to propagate and memorialise the history of their Ile-Ife ascendancy in their festivals and other ritual engagements. Any time the Ilaje-Ugbo people are celebrating Malokun Festival, as a way of memorialisation of their ancestral root, they sing "Oramfe, olori ire, oko mi oge" which means Oramfe, the fortunate one, my husband and king/lord. While remnants of the people in Ile-Ife continued to celebrate Moremi as their liberator and heroine, the people at Ode-Ugbo see her as a betrayer and traitor. At the premises of the palace and Oghonne Royal Court/Temple at Ode-Ugbo, the statue of Moremi is humbled on her knees, in apologetic posture as way of humiliating and continually portraying her as a traitor. The vegetation of the area is a perfect one in the sense that it gives the people the opportunity to combine farming, hunting, lumbering, mat/raffia weaving, boat building and other indigenous occupations with fishing, their staple occupation.

The area was located on loamy soil to the western isogloss and clay soil to the southern isotherm which afforded the people the interactions with the creek and the sea. They soon mastered the art and science of hunting and gathering on land, fresh water and the sea. They also mastered the science of both geography and oceanography and could read and interpret the movement of the ocean current by merely looking at the sky from their huts at home. As a result of their sound interactions with their environment, they soon masterfully attained perfection in the art and science of building houses or foot-bridges on wooden scaffolds and platforms which they continued till this moment. They conquered nature, manoeuvred it to their service by learning the craft of boat building, mat and raffia weaving as indigenous occupations. Where there were a lot of marshland, they learnt the science of construction of wooden walkways, foot-bridges or road networks to aid movement, bonding, constant fraternisation and social interaction among their neighbours. Subsequently other satellite camps such as Ugbo- Eye and Ugboroko where he (Erede) kept his slaves and the captives captured from Ile-Ife were later founded.

The kingdoms of Ugbo and Etikan continued to cohabit and expand in population and landmass. At Ugbo-Etikan, the people continued to exist as farmers, hunters and fishermen. Abe-Otobo (the estuary of hippopotamuses) [now corrupted to Abetobo] was then the boundary between the territories of Ilaje-Etikan under the Olikan of Etikan Kingdom and that of Ilaje-Ugbo under the Olugbo of Ugbo Kingdom. It also served as theentrepot into the sea and the creek. Soon afterwards, leadership tussle or rift began to ensue between them. At about 1340, during the reign of the eighth (8th) Olikan, Oba Olu Ajamuagba, also known as Olu Ajamagbalara (one who fights without brooking envy), the people of Etikan migrated from Ugboroko, Ugbo-Eye and Ugbo-Etikan before they got to the present location which now houses the seat or administrative headquarters of the kingdom, Ode-Etikan near a thick mangrove forest. At the new location, Etikan Kingdom burgeoned exceedingly and continued its fraternisation with Ugbo Kingdom. 

The people of Ilaje-Etikan, Ilaje-Ugbo, Ilaje-Aheri who are believed to have same Ife ascendancy and other kingdoms in the present day Ogun State and Delta State, deepened their external bond and relations by organising themselves into what was called Erun-omi or Eronmi which literally meant ‘‘mouths of the waters’’. Politically and culturally, Erun-omi means confederation or confederacy (J.F. Ade-Ajayi and Crowther 1974). These kingdoms organised themselves into autonomous mini-states and continued their fraternisation on core traditional matters. The Erun-omi politics was so well organised that they evolved a modern monarchy in which the Olugbo was the permanent president and the Olikan was the next in rank on the organogram. They had at least a time in a year for their meeting at Ode-Ugbo. 

Each of the kingdoms that formed the confederacy legislated autonomously on internal matters that directly affected their individual kingdoms but referred serious matters that could not unanimously be agreed on to the meeting of the Erun-omi. Thus, the Erun-omi was both a traditional and judicial institution held sacred and hallowed by the members. At first, they were just three (3) and were referred to as the Erun-omi Meta (the three mini-states or confederates) and the membership included Ugbo, Etikan and Aheri. Later, other kingdoms which fell in love with the way the "diplomatic" and cultural fraternity was consummated and sustained by the founding members of the Confederacy later joined and the membership grew from three (3) to nine (9), Erun-omi Mehan (mesan). With time, Ode-Omi, Iwopin in Ogun State, Ireju in the present day Delta State and other kingdoms joined the fold and the membership of the fraternity or confederates grew to thirteen (13) and were referred to as the Ilaje Etalegwa even though some of them were not thorough-bred Ilaje kingdoms Okunfeyiwa,G. Adesuyi (2006) and Oyetakin Adedoyin A. (2015) lend credence.

Before the advent of western civilisation and colonisation which ceded traditional powers and authority of traditional rulers to the colonial and post-colonial government, the Erun-omis had the power of life and death at their disposal. The Olugbo, through the support of the member mini-states, had power to pass death sentence on offenders for commiting grave offences like murder, stealing, desecration of sacred paraphernalia, and extra-marital affairs. On joining the group, each mini-state was given "Opa Ilaje" a replica of the mystical staff brought from Ile-Ife and the unifying symbol which connected each to the other and the ancestral root at Ile-Ife. "The Opa" was one of the sacred paraphernalia taken with them from Ile-Ife and it was hallowed as the symbol of common root and ascendancy. They were never to betray one another on any matter and must not attack or assail one another because they were united by a common force and ancestry. These aspects of the people's history answer the question of whether or not the people have or have not renounced their Ile-Ife root and ancestry. The people have always seen themselves as the natives of Ile-Ife but the Ilaje-Etikan, Ilaje-Ugbo and Ilaje-Aheri have never accepted to be called descendants of Oduduwa because their ancestors were the original aborigines of the ancient city of Ile-Ife (Akinruntan, 2015).

That is why till now, neither the Olugbo nor the Olikan would bow before the Ooni or accept the supremacy or superiority of his stool to theirs. They only accept the Ooni as the one who roosts on the remnants of their ancestral root, Ile-Ife. This accounts for the constant supremacy rift between the former Olugbo (Oba Adebanjo Akingbade Mafimisebi) and the former Ooni of Ile-Ife (Oba Okunade Sijuade); the present Olugbo of Ugbo (Oba Dr Fredrick Enitiolorunda Obateru Akinruntan) and the present Ooni of Ile-Ife (Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi). While the Ooni, the pro-Oduduwa kingdoms and the people of Ile-Ife see the crown of the Olugbo or the Olikan as being inferior to theirs and those of other Yoruba obas (kings) who derived their rights to beaded crowns from Oduduwa, the Olugbo and his group continue to lay claim to their crowns being the oldest in Yoruba land on the premise that they derived their right to beaded crowns from the Olufes who ruled before the advent of Oduduwa.

Successive Olugbos and Olikans have claimed to derive their rights to wear beaded crowns from the “Olufes", the title of Ife traditional rulers before the advent of Oduduwa and the evolution of the Ooni stool. They [the U/Igbomokun/ Igbomekun (Ugbo, Etikan and Aheri)] identified together as one historical entity (Ugbos/Igbos) in Ile-Ife, now comprise three (3) different kingdoms in the present-day Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State, south-western Nigeria continued to claim to be the aboriginal owners of Ile-Ife (Mafimisebi 2005 & Erediauwa 2015). The Olugbo still sees himself as offspring of Oramfe Onile Ina (the one with a house fire) and Obamakin Osangangan till now. This claim is contained in Akinruntan, F.E.O. (2015) Journal of West African Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in which the Olugbo is credited with referring to his crown and throne as the oldest in Yoruba land.

After the migration from Ugboroko and Ugbo-Etikan, Olikan hascontinued to retain his ownership of Ugbo-Etikan till the present moment. Every new Olikan must visit Ugbo-Etikan as the stage of his king-making or enthronement rite. The long trek during the pilgrimage to Ugbo-Etikan as a part of the coronation rite is physically and metaphysically significant to the king and the retinue that follows him on the long hectic trek. The great trek, which is called ‘‘uren lila’’, is significant in the sense that it builds up the spirit of endurance and perseverance in the new king as he begins a new dawn in the leadership of the kingdom.  This is to teach him that leadership comes with some difficulties and requires much perseverance.

The journey to and on the throne is always difficult. Above all, the long and hectic trek is spiritually significant to the new king and the people because it is a rite of reconnection to their root and source. It betokens the rededication of the king and the people to their traditional foundation, the first abode of their ancestors and the foundational deities of the kingdom. The journey avails the king of the opportunity to receive ancestral blessings and pray for the land through the various prayers, libations and propitiations rendered by the Abojutoro Oghonne, the chief officiating priest in the rite (Ajimisan, 2015)

The journey is also significant to the people in the king's entourage in that it builds in them the spirit of perseverance they need to have, especially in hard or difficult times. The long, hectic trek is called "Uren Lila" (the great trek) and it akin to the Great Trek (Mfecane) in the South African History. The trek remains a significantpart of the history of the kingdom till today. At the beginning of every major traditional activity or festival, the people parade through the main streets of the traditional headquarters of the kingdom, Ode-Etikan, in memory of the great migration peregrinations from Ile-Ife to Oke-Mafunrangan, Ugbo-Etikan and eventually to Ode-Etikan. Etikan soon began to expand to cover the mangrove forest and palm trees forest on the mainland. The present headquarters or seat of the kingdom derived its name from the combination of two words (Ode and Etikan). "Ode" is a word used to mean the centre, major or main part of a thing or place or even the major area of a geographical entity. Thus, "ode", in this context, connotes the centre of or the seat of traditional and political affairs of the kingdom and Ode-Etikan, therefore, means centre or the seat of Etikan Kingdom.

The present seat of the kingdom lies on a wide stretch of land with the Atlantic Ocean to the south, Alape Lagoon to the north-eastern flank, Idi-oma, near the present day Obinehin, to the western flank and the territory of the Ugbos via Abetobo to the south-eastern isotherm. About 97% of the territory of the kingdom is accessible by land. In actual sense, only the fishing camps which lie between the mangrove forest and the Atlantic Ocean are not accessible by land because they are situated on clay soil. With the knowledge of iron mongering and local technology, the people were not only cutting timber for building big huts and boats but were also harvesting the palm trees and raffia for the production of palm oil, local gin, palm wine and even potash from the white and red mangroves. From the settlement covered with thick mangrove forest, hunters of Etikan extraction soon discovered a mainland of mainly coarse-textured sandy soil at the present seat of the kingdom. At about 1820s, Ojabogun Oja-ado, the son of Ikumapayi, a young spirited Etikan hunter and prince who later became a warlord and the generalissimo of the kingdom was said to have built the first hut on the newly discovered sandy location as a farming and hunting post where he was drying and preserving his meat and fish for three moons or tides. 

The people soon fell in love with the new location and gradually, they were coming to build houses for human habitation. By 1866, when Agba Oriretan Ikumapayi, the elder brother of Ojabogun became the 16th Olikan, the new location was almost assuming the status of nodal town which then hosted the palace, the traditional square and other well organised settlements. It was during the reign Oba Agba Oriretan Ikumapayi that the colonial masters came to Etikan Kingdom. Before his ascension onto the throne as the 16th Olikan, Oba Agba Oriretan was a slave and local gin merchant. He was already plying his trade with European merchants at Agbadarigi (Badagry) and Ebute-Ero in the present day Lagos State and had already established contact with European civilisation and even Christianity.

At about 1858, because of his influence, exposure to western civilisation and affluence, Prince Agba Oriretan Ikumapayi was said to have laid the foundation of what is hitherto known as St Luke's Anglican Church, Ode-Etikan. He had mastered the act of Christian worship and liturgy and was helping in the campaign against slave trade, human sacrifices and other obnoxious customary practices. He ascended the throne as the 16th Olikan of Etikan Kingdom in 1866 and was the first monarch of the kingdom to have been baptised as a Christian with the baptismal name John. On arrival at Ode-Etikan, the colonial train fell in love with Oba Agba Oriretan's style of living with his people and the way the people cohabited with one another. During his reign, the kingdom was lucky to be in the good grace of the white men who came to the kingdom.

By 1903, Ode-Etikan had become a cosmopolitan entity with different people of different cultural and historical backgrounds living, working and plying their trades in the town. Sequel to the presence of a flourishing church in the town, the Anglican Church, then Church Missionary Society (CMS) founded the first primary school in the area later named United Anglican Primary School,Ereke/Agba, named after Oba Agba Oriretan. The school was founded in January 12, 1903 to serve Ode-Etikan and the neighbouring communities around her as catchment areas. By the time Oba Agba Oriretan died in March 1922 at a very ripe age after reigning for about 56 years, Ode-Etikan had established itself as a nodal town with a church, primary school, and a cemetery where people from neighbouring littoral communities came to bury the remains of their loved ones.

Etikan Kingdom had established socio-political autonomy among the neighbouring kingdoms. This autonomy was alluded to by Bernard Carkeek (1922) when he said that the Amapetu (the ruler of Mahin Kingdom) told him that Etikan Kingdom and Ugbo Kingdom had been long established on the coast or beachside before his kingdom, but both Etikan and Ugbo kingdoms were not under him and his was not under them as well. Ebisemiju, F.S. (2016). Ode-Etikan had risen to prominence so that when the colonial chroniclers who were compiling the history of the territories around the Atlantic Ocean arrived in the town in 1937, they met a modern church with brass band instruments which caught their fancy. This was recorded in the Ilaje Intelligence Reports as compiled by R.J.M. Curwen (1937) in paragraph 7. Etikan Kingdom has the following communities under her: Ode-Etikan, Ayetitun, Okonla, Moferere, Ogo-Oluwayo, Oke-Isegun, Ilutitun-Etikan, Idiepe, Idi-Apaye, etc. Etikan Kingdom comprises four (4) ruling houses namely Ikumapayi, Aropeda, Mafemiwa and Akintimeyin.

Ascension to the throne in the kingdom is by rotational convention among the ruling houses. The rotational convention began and was legitimised under the 20th Olikan, Oba Claudius Morioloye Orioye Ikuesan, fondly referred to as the architect of modern Etikan Kingdom, from the lineage of Aghoroetan, and the last son of Ikumapayi. The rotational convention was contained in the document submitted to the government of the then Western Region of Nigeria in the gazette of 1974. The rotational order took after the one made in an earlier declaration in 1957 by Oba Sir Adesoji Aderemi, the then Ooni of Ile-Ife who was from Giesi Ruling House. With the declaration of the Chieftaincy stool and facts about it in the gazette, Etikan Kingdom became the first kingdom in Ilaje and one of the first in the old and present Ondo State to do so. With the immediate past monarch of the kingdom Oba Adedoyin Oyetakin being from the Mafemiwa Ruling House, the vacant stool will be filled with a candidate from the Akintimeyin Ruling House, in line with the kingdom’s rotational convention referred to above.

In selecting the new Olikan, oracular consultation is majorly relied upon. However, where the family (the ruling house) is divided and cannot produce a consensus candidate will be presented to the "Oja" (Congress of the Townspeople) and king-makers, all the princes who have signified interest in the throne of their ancestors are presented to the five (5) king-makers who would then vote for the candidate of their choice with the Secretary to the Local Government as witness and representative of the state government. After the election, the Gbogunron, being the head of the king-makers, announces the result to the Oja who are also believed to be stakeholders and witnesses in the matter. The secretary to the local government sends his report to the chairman of the local government who then forwards it to the office of the governor, through the office of the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, for official ratification and approval of the state executive council. While the state continues its official processes of ratification, the town also commences the coronation rites necessary for the new king to ascend the throne of his ancestors (Morgan Review, 1981).

Etikan kingdom is also known for her numerous festivals. However, the two major festivals in the kingdom are Ijusu (Yam Festival) and Umale (Masquerade Festival). The Yam Festival holds specifically once in a year, November, while the Masquerade Festival may hold more than once in a year depending on the prevailing situation and the collective decision of the people. The Yam Festival is the celebration of the end of a productive year and dedication forthe commencement of a newyear or season. It avails the people of the opportunity to thank and venerate the ancestors for their benevolence in the year that is about to end and also to court their continued benevolence in the year ahead. Two major ingredients used in the festival are yam and fish. Yam and fish are historically symbolic in the festival. Yam is symbolic of the period in the people's history when they were farmers in Ile-Ife, Oke-Mafunrangan and other upland habitations. It also symbolises the fact that the people are still into farming in the present location. Fish is symbolic of the people's history in the present location. So, the two materials are celebrating the fusion and amalgamation of two periods of the people's history.

The Umale Festival is a celebration of the annual reunion of the dead ancestors with their surviving descendants on earth. There are many bands of masquerade in the kingdom. The most constantly and popularly featured ones include Luepe, Igbinle, Kalagbile, Apo-leri, Igodo, Ilebe, Romi-roke, Okorobojo and Ejiyemi. Another aspect of the people's praise-poetry that is also attributive of their historiography and geography is “A-ro-gba-gi” (a-ro-ugba-igi) which means one who clothes two hundred trees or poles. This is a display of affluence and it is connotative of the fact about the people's geography which is a fertile ground for cash or tree crops, a source of wealth and survival for them.

Etikan kingdom has five kingmakers which include Gbogunron (thehead of the king-makers), Olorogun Ajagbiyara, Oliha, Ogholijogun and Odofin. The nomination of the king-makers coversmost, but not all, the ruling houses in the kingdom. In the ancient past, the number covered all thenine (9) ruling houses that existed, and some ruling housesin fact had more than one slot.The current constitution of the king-makers’ circle is thereforelopsided asnot all the ruling houses are equitably represented the circle. For instance, in the current constitution the Akintimeyin Ruling House is not represented among the king-makers, whilethe Ikumapayi Ruling House has more than one representative. From Erede Ajalorun, the first Olikan and the founder of the kingdom who migrated from Ile-Ife, to Oba Adeleke Adedoyin Oyetakin, Mafemiwa 1, who joined his ancestors on February 6, 2016, Etikan Kingdom has crowned 22 Olikans (Ajimisan 2012 ;2016 & Ajulekun 2014 & 2018). The list is given below:

1. Erede, the son of Olufe Ajalorun/ Kutukutu, from the lineage of Oramfe Onile Ina (1030-?)

2. Iyofa

3. Oliken 

4. Akinbiyi

5. Ajaluwa

6. Amoyewa

7. Ilugbomidare

8. Olu Ajamuagba, also known as Olu Ajamagbalara, under whose reign the current headquarters, Ode-Etikan, was discovered after hectic peregrinations and expeditions.

9. Ojanogberuwen 

10. Jima

11. Oronghayi 

12. Akintimeyin 

13. Ojaneyin (1701-1758)

14.  Akennogbe (1760-1819)

15. Orongbemuja Akennule (1820-1864)

16. Agba Oriretan Ikumapayi (1866- March 1922)

17. Okoro Ologhogbile (Logbile) (1927- 1936)

18. Okun-omo Ikumapayi (1938-1947)

19. Lawson Okun-omo Ikumapayi (1949-1956)

20. Claudius Morioloye Ikuesan, Aghoroetan 1(1956- August 1992)

21. Gbadebo Adesuyi Okunfeyiwa,Aropeda 1(1994-January 30 ,2010)

22. Adeleke Adedoyin Oyetakin,Mafemiwa 1 (2011-February 6, 2016)

However, historians have not probed into the reason Etikan Kingdom has crowned only 22 Olikans (kings) despite being older than most kingdoms of Oduduwa's ancestry while Ile-Ife starting from Oduduwa dynasty has crowned about 51 Oonis. What account for this were periods of interregnum. For instance, after the reign of Erede, there was long period interregnum of about fifty (50) years between his reign and that of his successor. Likewise, there were periods of interregnum of at least two (2) years in between the reign of one Olikan and the next successor. After the reign of Oba Agba Oriretan Ikumapayi, between his reign and the succession of Oba Okoro Ologhogbile (Logbile) in 1927, there was a period of interregnum of five (5) years. What is clear is that there are periods of interregnum between the reign of each of the kings which historians have not yet attended to. Besides, they have not also attended to the fact that there may be possibility of omitting names of some of the kings from memory lane since the history of the kingdom has, until recent past, continued to be propagated through oral tradition, which may give room for exaggeration, distortion or slipping into oblivion.

S. Ola Ajimisan.