CITY NEWS Help, our lives under threat, Ibadan Mogajis cry out to Buhari, police
The Council of Ibadan Authentic Mogajis, who are the heads of chieftaincy families in Ibadan, Oyo State, on Tuesday night raised an alarm that unknown persons have been threatening them to desist forthwith from going to the palace of the Olubadan of Ibadanland at Popoyemoja or risk being killed.
The Mogajis have, therefore, appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari and the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to come to their rescue before, they feared, the situation gets out of hand.
The family heads also called on the governor of the state, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, to call the ruling party in the state, the All Progressives Congress (APC), to order in interfering in the issue of chieftaincy affairs in the state.
Addressing journalists at a hideout in Ibadan, the spokesman of the group, Chief Wale Oladoja, flanked by other executives of the forum, said, “Our lives are no longer safe here. And we begin to wonder what our offence is. Is it for standing by the Olubadan to preserve our culture, traditional norm and values?
“Frequent anonymous calls from the people we suspect to be agents of deaths are threatening all of us, including our cChairman seated here, Mogaji Moshood Akere; the Vice-Chairman, Mogaji Abass Oloko; the Coordinator, Mogaji Jelili Adanla; the Financial Secretary, Mogaji Ademola Olasomi and my humble self, to desist forthwith from going to Olubadan’s palace.”
Oladoja mentioned that other supporters of the Olubadan, Oba Saliu Adetunki, like the Osi Olubadan, High Chief Rashidi Ladoja were not left out of the threat.
Oladoja recalled that about a month ago, some yet-to- be identified gunmen stormed the Popoyemoja palace and shot sporadically to disrupt the peace there. “Three of you journalists also escaped death by the whiskers. What is befalling our land, what has come over us in this great city and why are people showing impunity and lawlessness because they wield power today?” he wondered.
Asked if the group had reported to the police for proper investigation, Oladoja said they were reaching out to them first through the public as represented by the media, adding that the group was disturbed that the fleeing gunmen were yet to be brought to justice many weeks after their act.
Oladoja called on President Buhari and IGP Idris to wade in and caution whoever was behind the threat and recent attack to desist forthwith because “God forbids, if anything happens to any of us, we won’t take it with levity as we shall go all out to avenge any uprising as nobody can intimidate or cow us for being fighters for our customs and traditions and for standing by the Kabiyesi.”