As the Osun State Government under Governor Gboyega Oyetola is battling with the crisis trailing the alleged imposition of Prince Olalekan Akadiri, a loyalist of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, as the new Akirun-elect, the State Government is toeing the same path in Ifon-Orolu, as residents of the town are set to battle the government over “faulty” process initiated by the Ministry of local government and chieftaincy affairs.
Citizens of the town under the aegis of Olufon Consultative Forum have written a letter to Governor Oyetola, warning that any attempt to adopt the defunct 1979 declaration as against the 1988 declaration will lead to crisis in the community.
According to the letter sighted by InsightMedia on Wednesday and signed by Professor James Oladejo on behalf of 29 other, the Elders of the town described the letter sent to Odunolu Ruling House to produce the next Olufon as a way of imposing a monarch on the people of the community.
The letter partly reads, “We have been reliably informed that the Osun State government has written to the Odunolu Royal family to produce the next Olufon of Ifon-Osun. By so doing, the government has no doubt, adopted the defunct 1979 Chieftaincy declaration, and ignored the extant 1938 declaration.
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The said invitation is clearly contrary to the advice and request put forward to the state government recently in a written submission on the matter by a group of elites from the ancient town of Ifon-Osun. The submission was made through a letter sent to Governor Oyetola on the matter. The group had requested that the extant provisions of the 1988 declaration be adopted in order to ensure fairness, peace and progress in the ancient town. Unfortunately, it would seem that the government is not interested in these three cardinal desires of the people. By the same token, we are left to believe that the progress and development of Ifon-Osun are not of major concern to the State government. Instead, the government is attempting to impose a monarch on the people without due consideration of the advice of well-meaning voices within the community of on-Osun.
‘The Olufon Consultative Forum hereby condemns the purported invitation to the Odunolu Royal family and declares it is recipe for chaos and anarchy within our ancient community imposing a monarch upon the people against their will also has the corollary effect of stiffing cooperation and development in the community.
“We members of the Olufon Commutative Forum hereby call on the State government to immediately reverse and recall its purported letter of invitation to the Odunolu Royal family before the unwanted consequences of this invitation begin to manifest. All legal and other law avenues will be pursued to resist any attempted imposition of a monarch upon our people. The state government must not allow our community to descend into anarchy and our people must not be put in a situation that could turn them against one another. The only way to avoid such ugly consequences is to listen to the voice of the people.”
Earlier, the Morounfolu Ruling House has raised an alarm over the matter through a letter to Governor Oyetola on November 22, 2021.
The Olufon Stool became vacant in April after the death of Oba Almaroof Adekunle Olumoyero.
InsightMedia recalls that the process that threw Prince Akadiri up as the Akirun-elect has been subject of intense debates as the Head of Kingmakers and Eesa of Ikirun, High Chief Adetoyese Kareem during a radio programme on Tuesday accuse some powerful politicians from Osogbo, the state capital, of being behind the moves to install Akadiri.
Kareem said, “what I noticed is that six of my colleagues Kingmakers were snuggled to Osogbo and smuggled back to the town after some days. Then I received a letter from the local government to attend a meeting. On getting there, we were asked to elect new Akirun from Oba-Ara Ruling House. I was the only Kingmaker that did not vote for Akadiri.”
Attempt to reach the Special Adviser to the Governor on local government and chieftaincy affairs, Rasak Adeosun did not yield positive results as he asked our correspondent to meet with him in his office but when our correspondent got there, he was not available and subsequent calls to his phone were not answered.
