One of the ruling houses in Igbajo, Osun State, the Owa Oke-Ode Ruling House; some kingmakers and the Owa-in-Council have kicked against the decision of the state governor, Ademola Adeleke, for a fresh selection of new Owa of Igbajo to occupy the vacant stool.
Adeleke had through an Executive Order sacked Oba Philips Adegboyega Famodun, the Owa of Igbajoland, alongside other monarchs. After a committee set up by Adeleke submitted its report, the governor, in a White Paper said Famodun’s removal stands and that a fresh selection process should be conducted.
But during a media briefing in Osogbo, yesterday, Secretary of OwaOke-Ode Ruling House and Akeran of Igbajoland, Adewumi Taiwo Babaloye, in a statement jointly signed, insisted that the tradition of installing an Owa of Igbajo could not be reversed, saying “the traditional rites cannot be performed twice in an Oba’s life time.”
They said that the re-selection order of the governor for another Owa of Igbajo was oppressive, vindictive and vendetta-laden and against the rule of law.
Besides, they asked the governor to allow the case instituted against Famodun to be decided and that Adeleke should not politicise the stool of the town.
Meanwhile, those who attended and endorsed the press briefing included the Owa in Council, Baales in Igbajoland, representatives from each compound, among others.
They appealed to the governor not to avenge alleged offences of Oba Famodun, who was the former state Chairman of All Progressives Congress on the people of Igbajo.
They equally urged those that contested for the stool to put the peace of the town ahead of their ambition. saying: “We won’t encourage any action or inaction capable of rocking the existing peace in our ancestry town of Igbajo by some princes who showed their intentions to vie for the obaship stool of our town by duly collecting forms and presented themselves for interview and are now making a needless issue out of it because they lost.”
