OONI of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has said the people of South-West Nigeria are ‘Ara Ife’ and not Yoruba as they are being called.

Oba Ogunwusi spoke in his Ile Oodua Palace on Saturday, while receiving indigenes of Otun-Ekiti and descendants of Olofin Ogunfunminire, who visited Ile-Ife to reunite with their root.

The royal father, who noted that all towns and settlements across Yorubaland had their roots in Ife, further explained that a research had revealed that the Yoruba people of South-West Nigeria were with the oldest DNA dated about 120,000 years.

Speaking further at the event attended by the Ajero of Ijero-Ekiti, Oba Joseph Adewole, Akeran Onimoba of Moba in Lagos State, Oba Razak Adisa, Alagbado of Agbado, Ogun State, Oba Adeayo Syllon and Aare OnaKakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams, Oba Ogunwusi, declared that the name Yoruba could not be found in Ifa corpus.

A statement by Moses Olafare, the Director, Directorate of Media and Publicity, Ooni’s Palace, on Sunday quoted Ooni as saying, “There is nothing like Yoruba in Ifa corpus, it is like an alias given to us. We are all from Ile-Ife, we are Ara Ife.

“Scientifically, it has been proven that only the Yoruba that have the ghost DNA which gave the emergence to the likes of the sickle cell. Over 90 per cent of sickle cell history and genealogy is within us and our forbearance call them Abiku; the spirit and reincarnation of ghost spirit. You can hardly find that in the world.

“At some point, we once lived together as one big happy family and the likes of Oore of Otun played a pivotal role as the spokesperson of Oduduwa, our progenitor, the thinking and think-tank. We started the Parliamentary system.

Speaking with newsmen, Oore of Otun-Ekiti and Paramount Ruler of Moba, Oba Adekunle Adeagbo, who led his subjects to Ile-Ife, described the event as a historic homecoming for sons and daughters of Otun-Ekiti and other Moba towns across Yorubaland.