APC accuses Osun Governor of humiliating Osun monarch
The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, on Friday, said the nullification of the selection process that produced Oba Adegboyega Famodun as the Owa of Igbajo by Governor Ademola Adeleke was vindictive and politically motivated.
The Osun State government, on Thursday, ordered a fresh selection process to fill the stool of Aree of Iree and Owa of Igbajo, having nullified the processes that produced them initially.
The government also declared the stool of Akinrun of Ikirun, Oba Olalekan Akadiri vacant, calling on all parties to wait for the determination of a suit on the stool currently pending before the Court of Appeal.
A statement by the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, stated that government decisions on the stools were contained in six White Papers on various committees that investigated issues raised by the executive orders issued by the governor, Ademola Adeleke at the inception of the administration in November 2022.
Adeleke had reversed the appointments of all royal fathers appointed by his predecessor, Adegboyega Oyetola at the twilight of his tenure.
He specifically directed Aree of Iree, Oba Ademola Raphael, Owa of Igbajo, Oba Gboyegba Famoodun and Akinrun of Ikirun, Oba Akadiri, to vacate palace and ordered investigations into the processes that produced them as monarchs.
The opposition party in a statement by its chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, said the outcome of the review of the coronation of the Owa of Igbajoland was an “unpopular, oppressive, exhibition of personal vendetta and an abusive reprisal which would not stand the test of legal firework.”
The statement read, “It is strange that Governor Adeleke, notwithstanding the pendency of the suit, keeps hounding, humiliating, oppressing, and denying Oba Famodun his rights.
“The needless intervention of Adeleke with his resultant nullification of the selection process that produced Oba Gboyega Famodun as the Owa of Igbajoland is a pungent acting of a meddlesome interloper in a subsisting matter in the court of law by the incompetent and Governor-by-proxy Ademola Adeleke.
The approach of Governor Adeleke on the issue at stake flagrantly offends the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which expressly allows for separation of powers among the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.
“The fact remains that the nullification of the obaship selection process which followed a due process can neither sit nor stand because it is a product of political vindictiveness.”
Responding, spokesperson for the governor, Olawale Rasheed, said Adeleke complied with due process, rule of law and the tradition of the various affected towns in the white paper.
