Eleven out of the fourteen kingmakers in Ikere Ekiti, the second largest town in Ekiti State, have unanimously upheld the selection of Prince Samuel Adejimi Adu as the Oba-Elect for the town.
They are of the view that his selection followed due process as stipulated by the extant laws on chieftancy matters in the state.
The kingmakers, who flayed media report which claimed that the screening process into the Ogoga of Ikere Ekiti stool was fraudulent, insisted that the exercise was carried out through the consultation of the Ifa oracle and after voting in the presence of two representatives of each of the royal houses and a government representative.
Addressing journalists in Ikere Ekiti on the issue, with the other 10 kingmakers in attendance, the head of the kingmakers, the Sao of Ikere Ekiti, Chief Omotosho James who noted that the appointment of an Oba was a sacred matter, condemned the hiring of a newspaper by some disgruntled elements within the town.
He noted that such move was satanic and aimed at truncating the existing peace in the community for selfish reasons.
“Fighting a sacred war which one has failed to win through the due ‘process’ by hiring the media is an insult to our tradition and this belittles our revered throne before the whole world. lf anyone is boasting of any media affiliation, he should use such connection to recruit our teeming unemployed youths into the media rather than using the media to steal his way into a position God has not given to him”, he affirmed.
He also stated that the claim that the fourteen kingmakers, who presided over the screening exercise that produced Adejimi were not the authentic kingmakers, was baseless as no one could attain the position of a kingmaker by favour or any form of manipulation.
“What do they actually want? The Ifa oracle was consulted in the presence of everyone. Out of the six contestants shortlisted, his ‘Ifa’ was the best. To fulfill all righteousness, we went into voting, he got 11 votes while Prince Oyebanji Olajuyin had three, others had no vote. lf we are not authentic, how come they subjected themselves to be screened by us?”, he questioned.
Also, the head of Agirlala -Ogbenuote Ruling House, Chief Abioye Ojo, a.k.a Atewologun had bluntly refuted the claim that the acclaimed Oba-Elect is not an offspring of the royal family, noting that his father was once a family head of the lineage whose legacies of good leadership and selflessness were immense.
He frowned at the use of Ogoga palace as a platform for a media campaign by a group of people, a matter which he noted had become an issue of concerns and worries among the people.
He stressed that traditions behoved on whoever is occupying the throne on the interim, before the emergence of a new king, to be neutral and not to desecrate the primordial tenets of non-alignment throughout the transition period.
“Those who are saying those things are rather drunk and beclouded by their thirsts for offices. His father was a family head around 1991. When even he, the father died, his children presented to the family a live cow which we all slaughtered and ate to celebrate his father in line with our tradition. If they have a genuine claim, why have they not raised this alarm before his emergence?”, he queried.
ln the same vein, the Ologotun of lkere Ekiti, Chief Emmanuel Olajide, under whose auspices the Ifa oracle was consulted according to the tradition, has warned on the need to allow peace to reign in the town and the entire state.
“The whole exercise took place in my presence. The Secretary to the Local Governmen, Mr Wale Olanipekun, the heads and Secretaries of each ruling house were there. Everything was transparent. All these claims are afterthought and not good enough for ikere and Ekiti State at large. We are tired of crisis in this state. It is our prayer that none of these mischief makers would plunge us into one”, he stated.
Ologotun also flayed the bribery allegation levelled against the kingmakers, describing it as spurious and unfounded.
“Those who claimed that we took bribes should show their proofs. Such accusation is baseless and spurious. If we vote 20 times, we are still going to vote the same man who the Ifa oracle has chosen. We cannot bend the tradition because of some people’s selfish interests”, he affirmed.
The Kingmakers who described the state Governor, Dr Ayodele Fayose as a lover of the town, urged the government to announce the result of the screening exercise presented to it in the interest of peace.