Ekiti women finger regent, ruling house in chieftaincy tussle
A women group in Ikere-EkitI, Ikere Women Front (lWF) yesterday accused the regent of the community, Princess Oyinlola Ayooye and the Akayejo Ruling House, of sponsoring crisis rocking the community over selection of a new monarch for the town.
The women said the regent and her ruling house of trying to impose their ‘‘stooge’’ as the next king of the community through violent means.
The ruling houses in the community have been at each other’s neck over the choice of a new king for the community.
The women, in a statement signed by their leader, Mrs Ogunlade Ilori, said the group of women who staged a protest against the choice of Prince Adu Adejimi, as the next Oba of the town “were from the Akayejo Ruling House, who were ignorantly mobilised to rubbish the image of the state government and discredit the choice of the new king.”
But the regent, in an interview with journalists, denied allegation that she and her ruling house were behind the crisis in the town. She described the allegation as unfair.
She said as a qualified teacher, she was ready to quit regency and go back to the classroom as soon as a new monarch is installed.
She added, “All I can say is that this is unfair. It is very bad for these people to bring me into it. The royal families laying claim to the throne have the right to do so, and the women that were protesting have the right to do so. They have their own family names which all of them were representing. This is unfair and I want to say this; anybody that destroys my father’s name will be cursed, because I don’t have anything to do with who becomes the next Ogoga and I don’t have interest in the selection.”
Ilori maintained that the regent and her cohorts had become drunk by the largesse of office and were ready to exchange the peace of the town for chaos in order to elongate her tenure.
Meanwhile, elders from the Uro quarter of lkere Ekiti , led by Mr Joseph Epedola, have enjoined the Oba -elect to use his experience to bring development to the town.
He described the crisis over the Ogoga stool as normal in any large community, adding that the Adu Adejimi lineage and family are well known to everyone in Uro and the entire lkere community, noting that any accusation to the contrary is laughable.
He alleged that the present crisis in relation to the Ogoga stool was being fuelled by people from a particular royal lineage.