Twenty coastal communities in the oil-producing parts of Ilaje Local Government Area, Ondo State, have threatened to boycott the 2027 general elections if the Federal and Ondo State governments fail to intervene to protect them from the devastating ocean surge threatening their existence.
In a statement following a peaceful protest to the local government headquarters in Igbokoda, the communities said the advancing Atlantic Ocean had swallowed large parts of their settlements.
They demanded urgent government intervention, including sea walls, groynes and other shoreline protection measures, to save them from the worsening environmental and humanitarian crisis.
Community members under the aegis of the Coalition of Ilaje Ravaged Communities, with advocacy support from Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), held a press conference at Ayetoro and said the government had failed to remediate the crisis despite years of appeals.
The protesters, from the communities of Ayetoro, Awoye, Mese, Gbagira, Jiringho, Ilowo, Ilepete, Idiogba, Oroto, Alagbon, Erunona, Olotu, Yaye, Womitenren, Ogboti, Lepe, Ehinmore, Abetobo, Odun-Oyinbo and Abereke, said their situation had become a humanitarian emergency, with the advancing ocean destroying hundreds of homes, schools, places of worship, health facilities, fishing grounds, factories and other community infrastructure.
According to them, Ayetoro, once a prosperous settlement that reportedly loaned money to Nigeria’s Western Region Government, has become the most visible symbol of the devastation, with 85 per cent of the community lost to coastal erosion and ocean surge. Other communities, they said, are now facing a similar fate as the shoreline continues to recede.
Beyond long-term infrastructure, the communities demanded immediate humanitarian assistance, including food, potable water, medicines and temporary shelters for families displaced by flooding and ocean surge.
They also called on the federal government to declare the Ilaje coastline a national disaster zone and release emergency intervention funds to address the worsening crisis.
The communities further demanded that the state government sign a memorandum of understanding with them and publish a 90-day action plan within 30 days of receiving their demands.
“No project, no vote,” the coalition declared, warning political parties and aspirants that they would no longer take the support of coastal communities for granted.
The protesters stressed that the proposed election boycott was not a rejection of democracy but a demand for accountability from politicians seeking their votes.
The coalition lamented that their communities had contributed substantially to Ondo State’s oil-producing status, while receiving inadequate protection from the environmental consequences associated with living along the coast.
“You cannot take 75 per cent of our resources and give us zero per cent protection,” they claimed in the statement.
The monarch of Ayetoro, Oba Olorumbe Ojagbohunmi, lamented the scale of the devastation and what he described as years of government neglect. He said the community, an oil-producing settlement, had lost large parts of its territory to the sea, while oil was still being extracted from areas that once belonged to his family and other community members.
“It has been 20 years since the sea has been encroaching. The people of the community have been writing letters and making passionate appeals that we are experiencing serious environmental challenges, that the sea is coming at an alarming rate towards the residential areas of the community,” Ojagbohunmi said.
“For 10 years now, we have been losing at least 50 buildings every year to the ocean surge. My people have become refugees in their own town.”
Of the community’s 45 streets, only about seven are left, he said, adding that their factories, schools and other infrastructure are now in the sea.
“In April this year, disaster struck in the middle of the night, destroying the road to the palace and the palace’s staircase. I was held hostage for a week in the palace because there was no way my family and I could climb down from the palace. We are seeking help from wherever we can get it,” Ojagbohunmi added.
He blamed the scale of the problem on government failure, referencing two multibillion-naira shoreline protection contracts awarded by the Federal Government without the work being done.
Ogunlade Olamide, Associate Director, CAPPA, echoed the communities’ demand for climate and environmental justice, saying government at all levels had a duty to urgently intervene.
”Within the context of climate justice, environmental accountability and historical liabilities, governments at the federal, state and local levels must act now to protect the Ilaje people, their homes, livelihoods and heritage,” Ogunlade said.
“Communities that have borne the environmental and social costs of reckless resource extraction cannot continue to be met with silence and inaction. Their call is not for charity, but a demand for justice, fairness, accountability and reparation.”
The coalition’s General Coordinator, Comrade Akingboye Thompson, said the crisis was no longer one that could be treated as a routine environmental problem.
“Ilaje coastal communities are facing an existential threat. The Atlantic Ocean is swallowing our land from the sea, and poor drainage is drowning our headquarters from within,” he said.
Thompson described the affected residents as “climate refugees in their own country”, noting that many fishermen had lost access to traditional fishing areas while thousands of families displaced by the encroaching sea struggle to find safe places to live.
The coalition also drew attention to the worsening situation in Igbokoda, where inadequate drainage had left parts of the town vulnerable to recurring flooding during the rainy season.
It called for the immediate construction of a modern drainage network in Igbokoda, arguing that a local government headquarters should not itself be allowed to remain vulnerable to annual flooding.
The communities urged the Federal Government, Ondo State Government, Ilaje Local Government Council and relevant agencies to treat the situation as an emergency and begin immediate intervention rather than wait for more communities to disappear.
(The Sun)
