Monday, December 16, 2013

Village heads beat up Ogun monarch over chieftaincy disagreement

Alaye of Ayetoro, Oba Azeez Adelakun

Pandemonium broke out in Ayetoro, 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 between the village heads and the monarch was said to have occurred at the palace while Adelakun was making preparations to install the new village head of Ago-Imala, Chief Olayiwola Ajibola, a move which the village heads allegedly opposed.

The installation was billed to take place at Isale-Agboro multi- purpose hall before the crisis escalated.

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.

A resident, who pleaded anonymity, explained that the village heads had requested a meeting with the Oba.

He said, "When the monarch entered his palace for the meeting, the aggrieved baales refused to pay him the traditional homage and instead told him that they no longer recognise him as the traditional ruler of the town.

"One of the baales moved to forcibly remove the royal beads from the monarch, but his (monarch) resistance led to the fracas in the palace. The baale beat him up."

It was learnt that some youths of the community learnt of the assault on the monarch, they rushed to the palace and descended on some of the baales, who were still in the palace.

However, the Baale of Ayinbo- Ayetoro, Chief Ezekiel Ogundele, who spoke on behalf of the embattled monarch, alleged that his aggrieved colleagues had planned to dethrone Adelakun.

Ogundele said, "They said Kabiyesi disgraced them in Abeokuta and they will retaliate by removing him as the king of the town. There are two baales in Saala and the baales wanted the two offices merged, but Kabiyesi disagreed, saying he was the one that installed both of them.

"This did not go down well with the aggrieved baales who vowed to deal with the Kabiyesi by removing him.

"When the baales got to the palace, they did not pay homage and when the monarch asked them why they failed to pay the homage they said the Kabiyesi had been removed as the king.They were about 10 in number.

"Some of them tore the traditional beads of the king and beat him up. All of them had held a meeting where they planned on how to attack the king and they acted the script. As they were beating the Kabiyesi, the Kabiyesi urged his people not to touch them. Later the police came and took them away."

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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