Less than 12 months to the end of the tenure of the current Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Authority (NTDA), Mr. Folorunsho Coker, the tourism parastatal has earmarked 250 million Naira in its 2024 budget to develop the Imole Boja Tourist Site and to build sports facilities at the site.

The Imole Boja Tourist Site is in Kajola, in Oke-Ero Council area of Kwara State. It is an area of Kwara State not known for tourist activities.  

 However, reacting to the project, the NTDA head said the project was inserted into the parastal’s budget, but did not say by whom.

Oke Ero council area boasts of the Ero-Omola waterfall, one of the biggest waterfalls in the country in terms of volume of water cascading.  It also has the Imola Boja cave. The cave has a labyrinth of chambers, some with the capacity to shelter as many as 100 persons. Within the community, according a source, it has a small accommodation facility said to have been built by Senator Oyelola Ashiru, the senator representing Kwara South in the Senate.  

Hakeem Omotoso, the proprietor of Omotosho Travels and an expert Kwara State tourism asset shed more light on the area. He said: “The Imola Boja place used to be a safe shelter for the people of Kajola during communal wars in the olden days. The cave has different chambers. The biggest can take up to 100 persons, the others are small. In the olden days, women and children are hidden in the cave while the men go out to war.”

For a tourist site not even considered as a leading tourist attraction in Kwara State, not talking about Nigeria, Africa Travel Herald asked the NTDA Director General Folorunsho Coker why such money should be expended on the project. Coker replied with a text message: “The project is a Zonal Intervention Project (ZIP) inserted into our projects. Regards.”