The Ogun State Government has called on individuals contesting for Obaship stool in the State to desist from blackmailing and maligning government officials saddled with the responsibilities of seeing to their affairs and ensure peaceful co-existence within their various communities.
Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Afolabi Afuape said this in Abeokuta during a reconciliation meeting with the disputing parties from Itele community in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of the State.
Afuape affirmed that no government official could single handedly threw his weight behind an individual to make him a monarch without following due processes before the presentation of Staff of Office and Instrument of Appointments.
“Concerning Itele’s stool, the moment there were protests against the candidate selected by some faction in the community, I stepped down the process of installation, pending the time the crisis would be resolved amicably among the different family members’.
“It is so disappointing that some of the elders in Itele, were peddling rumors that the Commissioner and some officials of the Local Government had been bribed with the sum of N100million to avert justice in the appointment of the right heir to the throne”, he stated.
Afuape said he was shocked when the allegation was denied by one of the aggrieved elder from Adogun Atele’s family of Itele, Alhaji Lukmon Amosun, noting that it was insinuated to prevent government officials from taken side in the selection processes.
He said the acts of discrediting public officers would not encourage citizens to have confidence in the people at the helms of affairs and the public workers in the State.
In his remarks, the Olota of Ota, Oba (Prof.) Abdulkabir Obalanlege, represented by the Onikotun of Otun-Ota, Oba Akeem Odunaro, said the Olota had not at any point in time impose any candidate on the community, urging the leaders from the families, to call members of their communities to a round table and resolve their differences amicably.
In a related development, Ogun State Government has said, as a law abiding administration, it would not stand in the way of justice, manipulating any court judgement or order, as the State High Court sitting in Abeokuta declared the demotion of 75 coronet Obas as null and void.
Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Afolabi Afuape who stated this in Abeokuta during an interactive meeting with journalists, said the government through the Ministry of Justice would study the judgement, and if there is need for appeal, it would be done accordingly.
Sakirudeen Bashiru & Kemi Faleti,
Press Officers, MLG & CA
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