The Ife Traditional Council yesterday clarified their last week’s meeting with Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola on the vacant stool of Ooni of Ife.
They expressed misgiving over reports on some national newspapers.
Speaking at a meeting held at the Ooni of Ife’s palace in Ile-Ife yesterday, Chief Ijaodola, the Lowa of Ife, said: “Indeed, it is true that we held a meeting with the Osun State Governor, Alhaji Rauf Aregbesola, in his office in Oke-Fia, Osogbo, last Friday”. According to him, the meeting was held on the governor’s invitation.
The meeting, Chief Ijaodola said, was earlier scheduled to hold before last Friday, but some traditional engagements involving the Chiefs made it impossible.
According to Chief Ijaodola, 13 of the 16 Traditional Chiefs attended the meeting. Two of the 16 chiefs were said to be indisposed. One of the Chiefs, the Akogun, is dead.
The House of Oduduwa, as the Ife Palace is known, has 16 chiefs comprising eight on the left and eight on the right, that is, eight Inner and eight Outer Chiefs, forming the Traditional Council.
Chief Ijaodola said, apart from the governor, who was the convener of the meeting, the Osun State government was also represented by four other top officials, namely, Alhaji Moshood Olalekan Adeoti, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, the Chief of Staff (COS), Mr. Mufutau Oluwadare, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, as well as, a representative of the Justice Ministry.
According to Chief Ijaodola, the meeting, which was held behind closed doors, was presided over by the governor.
Opening the meeting, Chief Ijaodola said, the gorvernor told the gathering that the state government had, in recent time, been inundated with security reports that tension was building up in the ancient city of Ile-Ife following the demise of the immediate past Ooni, Oba Okunade Sijuwade and urged the Ife Traditional Council to prevent any breakdown of law and order in the town.
Oba Sijuwade joined his ancestors after a brief illness, at a highbrow hospital in London, on Tuesday, July 28. The announcement of his death by the media caused a lot of controversy with the Ife Traditional Council maintaining that the first class monarch was still alive and that if anything had happened to him, it was the responsibility of the Traditional Council to make the news public and not that of any other person through whatever medium. However, his transition was later made public when the Ife Traditional Council alongside members of the Sijuwade family including Tokunbo, his first son, finally broke the news to the Osun State governor at the Governor’s Office in Oshogbo on August 12. The remains of the departed monarch have since been buried at the Ife Palace.
Chief Ijaodola said, the governor touched on the succession to the vacant stool at the meeting. According to him, the governor told them point blank that “the choice of a new Ooni, is the sole responsibility and prerogative of the Ife kingmakers” and that he, the governor, has no candidate for the vacant stool and so he will not impose any candidate on the kingmakers. According to Chief Ijaodola, the governor later requested the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs who had come to the meeting with a file on the Ooni’s succession issue, to brief the gathering on what the law says on the succession.
After the Permanent Secretary’s briefing, Chief Ijaodola said three members of the Traditional Council including himself spoke and at the end of the meeting, the council chiefs assured the governor that they were capable of maintaining peace in the ancient town. He also said that they told the governor that, though they had noticed an influx of some shady characters into the town in recent time, they were not folding their arms. According to Chief Ijaodola, the Traditional Chiefs, therefore, implored the governor to beef up security in the ancient city as a way of forestalling the occurrence of any untoward development. Chief Ijaodola said since that Friday’s meeting, the government has swung into action as an increase in security presence had been noticed in the town.
On the successor to the Ooni, Chief Ijaodola said the Ife Traditional Council would today (Monday) address a news conference in the ancient town on the issue.
Apart from Chief Ijaodola, yesterday’s news conference at the palace was attended by seven others. They are Chief Adekola Adeyeye, the Jaaran of Ife, Oba Sakaniyawu Adewusi, the Obaloran, Ilode Quarters, Ife, Oba Zacheus, the Wasin of Ilare Quarters, Ile-Ife, Oba Jimoh Arifayo Awe, Arode of Ile-Ife, Oba Arasanmi, Erebese of Ile-Ife, Oba Adebowale Olafare, the Lowate of Ile-Ife and Idowu Salami, the Traditional Secretary to the Ooni of Ile-Ife.
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