Ijebu Igbo

Ijebu Igbo is a town in Ogun State, Nigeria, and the headquarters of the Ijebu North Local Government Area, about a 15-minute drive north of Ijebu Ode. The name joins Ijebu with the Yoruba word for forest and refers to the forested character of the area. The town comprises five distinct communities, Okesopin, Ojowo, Atikori, Oke-Agbo and Japara, each governed by an Oba who ranks as second class and submits to the Orimolusi of Ijebu-Igbo, the first-class supreme head. By oral tradition its founder was a hunter and prince from Ijebu Ode who chose to settle where he had been hunting after his younger brother took the throne in his absence. The Ijebu Igbo area holds the Omo forest reserve, one of the twelve largest forest reserves in Nigeria, and the local economy rests on timber, cocoa, sawmilling, quarrying and agro-processing. Residents speak the Ijebu dialect of Yoruba.