The residents of Eleyowo Community in the Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State, on Tuesday, protested against the alleged plan to impose a man on the community as monarch by the Deji of Akure, Oba Aladetoyinbo Aladelusi.
The protesters who stormed the palace of the Akure monarch to show their grievances warned that any attempt by the monarch to subvert their choice would be resisted and lead to another round of crisis in the community
Leader of the protesters, Olugbenga Omolere, alleged that the person whom Deji allegedly planned to impose on the community was not an indigene of the community, appealing to the traditional ruler to suspend the process.
He said “We got information that there is a process ongoing at Deji’s palace that they wanted to bring Olu for us and that is why we are here to tell the Deji of Akure that we don’t want any Olu for now
“We have been battling with some crisis already in our community and we will not want the Deji of Akure to compound our woes and should stop the process of appointing a new traditional head for peace to reign in our community.
“We have a family land at Alagbaka extension here in Akure with the name Arijodi/Ologunmolaare where Justice Aderemi Adegoroye of the Ondo State High Court gave an order that our family should set up a standing committee that would be in charge of the partitioning/sales, transfer, alienation or any other forms of dealing with the Arijodi/Ologunmolaare family land in such a way it shall not affect the right of ownership of any person or group of persons.
“All what we need now is how peace will reign in our community, not the issues of Olu, we don’t need Olu for now. The person that the Deji of Akure wanted to install as Olu is a son to Chief Mrs Taye Ologede who hails from Ekiti and the man is not our family member. He is from Ikogosi Ekiti. He cannot come from Ekiti and become an Olu here, we have a person already that can be our Olu here.
“We now expect our traditional ruler, the Deji of Akure, to suspend any process on this issue till we settle the crisis we have in our community.”
In a reaction, the Akure monarch, through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Michael Adeyeye, denied the allegation, saying there was nothing like crisis in the community.
He said, “As a normal practice, we asked those who are interested in becoming Olu of the community to obtain form, they all know the procedure and we don’t know any other person that obtained form other than the person in question.
“It is the prerogative of His Majesty to decide who becomes an Olu in the community. I think the issue of the person’s origin does not arise here. His Majesty has put on hold the process and the people should write their petition if they have anything against the process rather than verbal petition. His majesty is a fair person and would do the right thing.”
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