Osata was an Ancienit Ilaro ruler in the 19th century who sacrificed his
own son for his people to enjoy abundance of rainfall at a time Ilaro
was plagued with drought. The dialect spoken in Ilaro as the
headquarters of the Yewa/Egbado people is the Egbado dialect. When Ilaro
indigenes meets outside home The shout of “Omo Oluwewun” has a magical
power of unifying the Ilu Aro people. Ilaro of the late 19th and 20th
century benefited immensely from the Missionaries. The Missionaries
introduced religion and western education to the people of Yewa Land.
Churches and schools were founded of which the Christ Missionary Church
and school was founded as CMS and the first secondary school in Egbado
land known then as Egbado College Ilaro, now YEWA COLLEGE was also
founded. The Ilaro of today is a mixed religion town because of the
hospitable nature of the Ilaro people. Thus there are as many numbers of
mosques as there are churches. There are also Muslim Missionary
training centers of the Ahmadiyat Muslim Mission and the Nawar-ud- deen
Missions respectively.
In the ancient days the major occupation of
the Yewa/Egbado people is mostly farming (arable crops and cash crops
like cocoa, coffee kola nuts oranges and pineapples.) other farm
products include Cassava, yam, okro, rice, banana, plantains and
vegetables such as the water leaf, spinach to mention but a few.
The
major industry of the Ilaro people for their blessing by nature of very
thick forest is the timber Industry. Till date, there are several timber
milling industries spread at outskirts of the town for the production
of planks and ply woods for both local consumption and for exportation.
During
the Nigerian civil war, Ilaro as the headquarters of the Egbado land
produced brave warriors who fought for the sustenance of the unity of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Notable of these patriots include Major
General Olurin (Rtd),late brigadier
