The Osun state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has insisted that the new Oba appointed to mount the Owa of Igbajo stool is illegal.
This is as the party also called for the government to recognise the embattled Oba Phillips Adegboyega Famodun as the rightful Owa of Igbajo.
Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke on Monday approved the appointment of Prince (Dr) Ademola Stephen Kayode Makinde as the new Owa of Igbajo in Boluwaduro Local Government area of the state.
Reacting, the APC alleged that the appointment of the new Oba at the state executive meeting was never held contained in a press statement signed by the state Commissioner for Information, Public enlightenment and Local Government Affairs (sic), Mr Kolapo Alimi.
In his remark on the development, the state chairman of the APC, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, in a statement issued by the party’s Director of Media and Information, Chief Kola Olabisi, yesterday, stated that it was unfortunate and worrisome the rate at which Adeleke has been desecrating the obaship institution with impunity in the state.
Lawal disclosed that the purported confirmation of the appointment of another Owa of Igbajo when the one legally installed by the state government, Oba Phillips Adegboyega Famodun, by the immediate-past administration of Governor Gboyega Oyetola, according to the law, tradition and custom of the people of the ancient town of Igbajo, is still very much in place, is a nullity which cannot withstand the legal fireworks in the court of law.
The state APC chairman accused Governor Adeleke of running the government by deceit, by concocting the holding of an exco meeting knowing when none was held.
While reiterating his confidence in the judiciary to deal decisively with the issue, Lawal explained that if Adeleke thinks that he can usurp the roles of the judiciary, he is making a very big mistake.
In the words of the state APC chairman, “Is Governor Adeleke not aware that there are subsisting cases on the obaship conundrum in three competent courts of law and that he, as the state governor, is a defendant in all the suits?
“Would it be right in the estimation of Governor Adeleke that he should be a judge in his own case? Thank God that the judiciary in whom we have absolute confidence in, would adjudicate with fairness on the issue.
“I am telling Governor Adeleke with an air of finality that he would be disgraced on the Oba Famodun’s issue.
“Was it proper to put beads on the necks of some urchins who are non-natives of Igbajo to fraudulently pose as the kingmakers in the Governor’s Office, State Government Secretariat, Abere, for nauseating gratifications when no legally-recognized kingmakers were ready to have a hand in such a dirty and criminal conduct?
“I pity Mr Makinde for allowing the Adelekes to break a political metaphorical coconut on his head because of his own rabid ambition to occupy a non-existing office of the Owa of Igbajo currently being legally occupied by Oba Phillips Adegboyega Famodun.
“It wasn’t a wise decision for the Adeleke ally to have ditched a plum job of thirty years at an oil company and wittingly offered to be a willing tool in the hands of disgruntled politicians who would catalyze the loss of the two jobs.
“I am reiterating here for the information of whoever cares to know that as a party, Oba Phillips Adegboyega Famodun, is the duly recognised Owa of Igbajo while any other one is a mere impostor who should be treated as such as two monarchs cannot exist in a town.
“Through this medium, I am appealing to the good people of Igbajo to remain resolute and law-abiding in the face of brazen provocation by the government which ideally should encourage peace and not violence,” Lawal counselled.