Imeko Afon is a

Local Government Area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

in the west of

Ogun State Ogun State is a state in southwestern Nigeria. Created on 3 February 1976 from the former Western State. Ogun State borders Lagos State to the south, Oyo State and Osun State to the north, Ondo State to the east, and the Republic of Benin to th ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

bordering the Republic of Benin. Its headquarters are in the town of Imeko at coordinates .

Location

The local Government was created from the old Egbado North Local Government in December 1996, during the military regime of General

Sani Abacha Sani Abacha (20 September 1943 – 8 June 1998) was a Nigerian military officer and politician who ruled as the military head of state of Nigeria from 1993 until his death in 1998. He seized power on 17 November 1993 in the last successful ...

. The land area is about . The land is rolling, with small hills rising between 15 and 70 metres above sea level. The Yewa River runs through the area from North to South, with its tributaries, the rivers Oyan and Oha. The LGA is bounded in the north by

Oyo State Oyo State is an inland state in southwestern Nigeria. Its capital is Ibadan, the third most populous city in the country and formerly the second most populous city in Africa. Oyo State is bordered to the north by Kwara State, to the east by Os ...

, to the east by the

Abeokuta North Abeokuta North is a Local Government Area in Ogun State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Akomoje, near Abeokuta. It has an area of 808 km and a population of 201,329 at the 2006 census. The local government area includes the O ...

LGA, to the south by the Yewa North LGA and to the west it shares an international border with

Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the nort ...

. The international border is , and is one of the most accessible stretches of border between the two countries. The Local Government is divided into ten political wards: Imeko, Afon, Ilara, Iwoye/Jabata, Idofa, Owode/Obada/Idi-Ayin, Moriwi / Matale /Oke-Agbede, Agborogbomo, Atapele and Kajole / Agberiodo. Imeko, the LGA headquarters, is about by road from Ketou, a major trading town in Benin. The second largest settlement, Ilara, merges into Kanga in Benin.

People

The 1991 population census gave a population of about 118,339. The people are mostly

Yorubas The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

of Ketu origin, but there are significant numbers of Ohori and Egun speaking people. As a border community, other West African people live in the LGA, including a substantial number of

Fulani The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people ( ff, Fulɓe, ; french: Peul, links=no; ha, Fulani or Hilani; pt, Fula, links=no; wo, Pël; bm, Fulaw) are one of the largest ethnic groups in the Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. ...

nomads. In March 2011, just before the April National elections, it was reported that a mass transfer of teachers disloyal to the

Peoples Party of Nigeria A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prop ...

(PPN) had begun in the LGA.

Economy

Farming is the main economic activity. The vegetation is a mixture of savannah belt and sparse forest suitable for cattle raising, with the advantage of being free of Tse-tse flies. The climate is tropical, with a rainy season commencing around March and ending in November. The soil is fertile, and Cassava and Tomatoes are grown in large quantities. Cotton grown in the LGA supplies the Yaru, tread and textile industries in Benin Republic. Other crops are pepper, maize, groundnuts, yams, vegetables, cocoa, cashew and teak. The LGA has 43 public primary schools and 6 secondary schools, and a number of private schools. Tourist attractions include Celestial City, center of the Celestial Church of Christ, Imeko, Odosuuru waterfalls, Mount Boomu, Afon and Jabata Forest. To encourage tourists the LGA is named the "virgin land", and in 2010 a Imeko-Oke-Agbede-Iwoye road was being built.

References

{{Ogun State Local Government Areas in Ogun State