Monarch chased out of palace in Ekiti
.... Kingmakers say proper traditional rites of his installation are yet to be performed , as govt intervenes
Kehinde Adewole, Ado Ekiti
Angry members of Odo-Ora community in Ido-Osi Local Government Area of Ekiti State have sent their monarch, Obalemo of Odo Ora, Oba Samuel Akinola Adeyemo, packing by locking him out of the royal palace and office, pending when, according to them, proper traditional rites that would make him acceptable as the Oba were performed.
The monarch in a Safe-Our-Soul letter to the state government informed the deputy governor of the state, Bisi Egbeyemi, that he had been locked out of the palace by suspected hoodlums allegedly mobilised by some interest groups in the community.
He revealed that palm fronds were tied at the gate of the palace as a traditional message barring him from occupying the building.
But explaining what happened on behalf of the community people, one of the community leaders, Prof. Olawumi Ajaja, said Odo-Ora indigenes had nothing against the person of the embattled monarch but against the process that produced him.
Ajaja, who is former Rector of the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, said the locals still see the monarch as an Oba-elect alleging that traditional rites were yet to be performed.
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The kingmakers and other community leaders alleged that the procedure that produced the monarch was faulty and that he was not formally installed.
Meanwhile, the Ekiti State Government has intervened in the crisis rocking town.
The Deputy Governor, Otunba Bisi Egbeyemi, during a peace meeting held in his office on Wednesday condemned the violence that recently rocked the community.
According to statement by his Special Assistant (Media) to the Deputy
Governor, Odunayo Ogunmola, Egbeyemi warned that the full weight of the law would be visited on individuals fomenting trouble in Odo Ora
Egbeyemi said that government had to summon the peace meeting following intelligence report from security agencies on possible outbreak of violence over the kingship crisis.
The deputy governor warned stakeholders in Odo Ora to maintain peace stressing that government won’t depose any monarch in the state.
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He advised Odo Ora indigenes who are aggrieved with the emergence of Oba Adeyemo as the Obalemo to seek redress in the court of law.
Egbeyemi further stressed that government would not fold its arms and allow the situation to degenerate into anarchy adding that anybody caught fomenting trouble would be arrested and prosecuted.
He said: “Security report revealed that there is likely to be outbreak of violence in Odo Ora. I don’t want anybody to disturb or attack Kabiyesi.
“If there is outbreak of violence, all culprits will be arrested and prosecuted. Let there be peace in your community.”
The deputy governor urged parties in the crisis to report back in his office on February 21 for a follow-up peace parley in a bid to resolve the impasse.
