The lingering chieftaincy crisis rocking Ibadan is daily getting messier. The council of Obas installed by the Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi against popular opinion, it is recalled, recently threatened to depose the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Saliu Adetunji Aje Ogunguniso 1. They offered a series of allegations for their threat and they even gave the revered monarch an ultimatum to either sit up or get sacked from office.
Menahwile, reliable sources have said that the governor it was that gave the smaller obas the support to to announce their decision to sack the Olubadan. From time to time, said one of the sources, the governor meets with the obas to deliberate on the chieftain crisis that has factionalized the Oyo obas council since the smaller obas instalment by the governor. The Olubadan has remained defiant, refusing to recognize the authority of the obas installed by Ajimobi though.
The monarch, replying to the obas announcement to depose him, said “you are a band of jesters.” Although, concerned Ibadan indigenes are worried that the obas announcement was an attempt by Ajimobi and the chiefs to weaken the power of Olubadan as the king of one of the largest cities in Africa, the palace says “there is no cause for alarm.”
-Akin Alade
