Brief History Of Oka Akoko Town

Oka is the administrative headquarters of Akoko South-West Local Government Area of Ondo state. It is bounded in the East by Epinmi and Ipe, in the West by Akungba and Supare in the North by Ise Iboropa and Ugbe in the South by Oba and Ikun towns.

Oka is Situated on a Plateau which tails off in an extremely picturesque pattern of undulating hills which itself is an extension of the great Kukuruku hills.

The of Oka covers an area of Thirty Square kilometers. Predominantly, the vegetation is of the derived Savanna with scattered forests all over the area. The adjacent lowlands have wood land Savannah features a biotic climax which resulted from frequent bush burning.

The atmospheric condition of Okaland is equally determined by the S/W Monsoon winds and the N/E trade winds.

Okaland has a mean annual temperature of over 21:0 C with annual rainfall of about 1,270mm (50″) Humidity is relatively high for a good part of the year.

 Okaland is a conglomerate of several settlements made up of Oke-Oka, Iwaro, Ayepe, Ayegunle, Okia, Simerin and Uba. Apart from Oke-Oka and Iwaro, which are nuclear settlements, the others are linear in pattern.

History made us to understand that Oka people came from Ile-Ife, this can be seen in the word Okarufe which means  Oka-Ife.

Oka people left Ile-Ife some centuries ago in search of a suitable abode.They migrated through Ijeshaland and Ekitiland until they came to a place near Imesi-Ekiti East Local Government Area of Ekiti State.

They sojourned for many years until a group under Asin and another group under Okikon left Imesi and journeyed through different routes till each group arrived at the precincts of some lofty hills.

The group under Okikon settled in the eastern part of the hills and this group became known as Okaroke. The group under the Asin settled in the Southern part of the hills and became know as Okaodo. Both groups later became the SIRU group of the communities.

Those left at Imesi also broke into two group, one group traveled through Ikole Ekiti and the other group traveled through Ora in Akoko North and finally settled at the Western and Northern peripheries of the same hills. These other group also became known as SIFA.

During  inter-tribal wars, all the communities joined forces together, to repel the invaders especially the conquering armies of the Nupes and Edos. While all the surrounding towns and villages were overrun and depopulated, Oka remained unconquerable, offering military assistance or asylum to the refugees from the neighbouring war stricken areas.

Oka people are predominantly farmers, whom engage in mere subsistence farming. They produced foodstuffs like Yams, Maize and Cassava.

Some of them combine the production of cash crops like Cocoa, Coffee and Rubber.

Later more of Okas are went into commercial activities while others are engaged in tertiary occupation of which carpentry and bricklaying are notable examples.

Oka Hills: is situated on a table-land and every approach to it is always an up-going movement. On the Plateau itself, beautiful hills are slotted in a circular formation round the town.

The picturesque arrangement of these hills is so mystifying that looking at the Hill you might get carried away by the rather intruding formation; which sometimes cast a very captivating scenery on the surrounding towns.

What about the good  quality of cool air which welcomes every visitor to the hills which have the same  breezy winds in Lagos beaches or Jos  in Plateau State.

This made the white men that colonized Nigeria in  early nineteenth century to build could a “Rest House” at Oka Hills,

Most of the Hills in Oka have natural springs at their base formations which flow all the year round. A good example is the “Asawa Spring” at the foot of Ojomirin Hill. The water content of this spring is so pure and cold that one often mistake it for a mechanically processed water.

Oka hills offer a lot of natural habitats as resorts for fun-lover, convalescing invalids and the spiritually impoverished believers. The relative quiet, coupled with the cooling and breezy winds.

The white people who cited the Oka Rest House and the statue of the Holy Mary at Oke-Maria did appreciate the aesthetic beauty and potentialities latent in Oka Hills. This has now become an annual pilgrimage for Catholic faithful &other believers.