Pandemonium broke out in Ayetoro, the
political headquarters of Yewa North Local Government Area of Ogun State, when
at least 10 village heads allegedly beat the Alaye of Ayetoro, Oba Azeez
Adelakun and destroyed his traditional beads.
The fracas which
occurred,weekend, shortly before the embattled monarch installed a
village head of Ago-Imala, Olayiwola Ajibola, prompted the state Commissioner
of Police, Mr Ikemefuna Okoye, to personally supervise his men who stormed the place
in four Hilux vans to restore normalcy.
The installation was billed to take
place at Isale-Agboro multi-purpose hall before the crisis escalated.
On a visit to the
place, there were eight bonfires in various places which were reportedly made
by the youths in the area in protest against the assault on their monarch.
It was gathered that, there had been
bad blood between the monarch and the aggrieved village heads following
the refusal of the monarch to merge two village heads in Saala village.
An eyewitness said that some village heads had demanded to hold a meeting with the monarch
on the need to jettison the installation of the new village head, and when the
monarch entered the palace, the aggrieved village heads refused to pay
homage to him, saying they did not recognise him.
Speaking on behalf of the
monarch, Baale Ayobo-Ayetoro, Ezekiel Ogundele said: “Those Baales
have vowed to dethrone the Kabiyesi and they have
been planning against him for long. They said until they dethrone him they will
not rest.
“They alleged that the Kabiyesi
disgraced them in Abeokuta and they would retaliate by removing him
as the oba of the town. They said the two village heads
in Saala should be merged, but Kabiyesi told the
government not to allow them merge the two offices. This did not go
down well with the aggrieved Baales who vowed to deal
with the Kabiyesi by removing him as Oba.
“This development led to the
confusion to the extent that, these aggrieved village heads
wrote the Kabiyesi to meet them at his palace,
December 16.
“But, Kabiyesi wanted to install
Baale Ago-Imala and when they got to the palace they did not pay homage to him
and when the monarch asked them why they failed to pay the homage, they said
the Kabiyesi had been removed as the Oba,
“They vowed that they will not remove
their caps and shoes as the culture demanded and they carried out the
threat. They were about 10.”
Confirming the incident, the Police
Public Relations Officer in the state, Muyiwa Adejobi, said 19 Baales were
involved, adding that one of the Baales assaulted the oba by
removing his traditional beads.
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