Have you ever heard of Igando? Well, in case you haven’t, Igando is a community located in Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State, Nigeria’s bustling commercial capital.
The news headlines out of Igando can crack you up. Let’s take a few examples – Man seeks divorce, says wife breeding children like rats (reported on April 26, 2017); Woman divorces husband for starving her of sex for 2 years (May 11, 2018); Court dissolves 41-year-old pastor’s marriage for impregnating daughter, wife’s sister (May 16, 2019); 44-year-old land surveyor asks court to dissolve marriage over wife’s alleged romance with a policeman (March 9, 2020); Lagos pastor cries for help as wife demands bribe before sex (June 27, 2019); Woman claims she slept with brother-in-law thinking it was her husband (July 15, 2019).
All of these are cases resolved at the Igando Customary Court in Lagos.
Funny as these stories are, however, they are not the only things Igando is known for.
Igando is home to the Lagos State College of Nursing, Midwifery and Public Health Nursing and the Alimosho General Hospital, “a modern multidisciplinary medical institution which for many years has been pleasing its patients with a high level of services provided, an attentive and individual approach”.
It also plays host to the Igando Emergency Relief/Resettlement Camp under the Lagos State Ministry of Special Duties, the Lagos Theatre on 88 College Street, Marturion Cinemas along LASU-Isheri Road, and Secret Cinema on Saubana Olorunfemi Street.
In September 2019, at an event which marked the commemoration of his 100 days in office, the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, commissioned a 492-flat housing project in Igando named after the first civilian governor of the state, Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande.
The Lateef Kayode Jakande Garden Estate project started in 2012 under the Home Ownership Scheme of the administration of ex-Governor Babatunde Fashola but was completed by the Sanwo-Olu administration.
Igando is also the place of the three anthills. According to oral tradition, Igando was founded about 600 years ago by Ezeba-Onimaba, Oko-Osi and Eshidana. The three founders migrated from Ile-Ife to Bini as hunters and traders in search of a village settlement. They came to a place where there were three anthills, ‘IGAN-ODO. The Ifa oracle, Orunmila, was consulted and he told them to make a village settlement in the area. Thus, the place called Igando today came to be.
Ezeba-Onimaba, Oko-Osi and Eshidana brought with them such deities as Ogun, Ale, Eyigba, Oluwwaiye, Oro, E Gun Gun Aad Osugbo Cult.
Igando is divided into four quarters, namely, Imoba, Isalu, Idojigbo and Isunbajon. These areas have traditional administrative authorities each of which is headed by a white cap chief. Oba Lasisi Gbadamosi is the Onigando of Igando.
