Sola Adeyemo, Ibadan
Rather than thaw, the frosty relationship between 21 embattled crown-wearing High Chiefs and coronet-wearing Baales in Ibadanland and the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Saliu Adetunji, has continued to worsen as the embattled chiefs have described as fallacious the latter’s recent claim that they had dumped their insignias of office.
Oba Adetunji had through his Personal Assistant/Director of Media and Publicity, Adeola Oloko, declared that “the three year-old crisis that rocked Ibadan Chieftaincy System has gone with the wind. Chiefs are no longer addressed as monarchs as this has become unlawful and we have stopped indiscriminate wearing of beaded crowns and coronets among other things.”
But speaking on behalf of the monarchs installed in 2017 by former Governor Abiola Ajimobi following the Ibadan Chieftaincy Review row, the Oniroko of Iroko, Oba Ismaila Abioye Opeola, said there was no iota of truth in the claim by the highly reverred Ibadan monarch, insisting that “none of us, the Royal Majesties (High Chiefs) or the Royal Highnesses (Baales) has dropped our crown and coronets.”
He recalled that the consent judgment obtained by High Chief Rashidi Ladoja last November which might have informed the claim and position of Olubadan “has currently become a subject of litigation as two separate suits are already filed in the State High Court challenging it.”
Another source close to the Royal Majesties (the High Chiefs), who are the members of Olubadan-in-Council, also belied the claim, saying “none of us was present at the last Friday’s installation of new Araba where Olubadan announced that the three year-old rift was over.
“The joint boycott of the palace by the members of Olubadan-in-Council was to protest our exclusion from the process leading to the choice of the new Araba, a system which become the pattern of the palace. The letter inviting us to the palace last Friday specifically said we would discuss the appointment and not installation, which was what they did and that has always been the pattern. They would have completed and concluded everything they wanted to do and only gather us to be part of ceremony. That is eroding our statutory duty as members of the Olubadan-in-Council. This will never be accepted by us”, the source stressed.
Describing the submission by Olubadan as a product of misinformation, Oba Abioye Opeola therefore reinforced the position of their counsel (Kunle Sobaloju) that since the Ibadan Obas had “submitted the issues in respect of their rights to wear beaded crown and coronet to the court for determination, unless the issues are determined one way or the other, none of the parties is allowed to do anything that will prejudice the hearing and determination of the issues before the court.
“It is settled law that once a court is seised of a matter, none of the parties has the right to take the law into his hands or to do anything that will prejudice the hearing of the case,” Oniroko said.
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