Ekiti State government has warned communities agitating for autonomy to refrain from stoking violence and division that could destabilise peace in the state.
The deputy governor, Mrs Monisade Afuye, gave the warning recently, in Ado-Ekiti while mediating in a chieftaincy dispute in Araromi Ugbesi-Ekiti, Ekiti East Local Government Area of the state.
Afuye said that the intervention followed a petition written by the Okete family of Araromi Ugbesi, calling for its enlistment as a ruling house and agitating for the removal of Owa Eleshi of Araromi Ugbesi-Ekiti, Oba Lawrence Adeyeye, accused of harassment and intimidation of their family members.
She warned that henceforth any community or chiefdom seeking autonomy must do so with civility and under a peaceful atmosphere.
Afuye directed all chiefs in the Okete family to reunite with the traditional ruler and start attending community meetings to restore peace.
“With you changing your name from Okete to Obalende, you have pulled out of Araromi Ugbesi and it will be difficult for you to get the declaration changed in your favour. You can’t be given autonomy when you are causing crisis.
“I want you to sustain the rotation of Elenta chieftaincy within Okete family for peace to reign.
“Go back and reunite with your traditional ruler, so that you can be one to pursue whatever agenda you have peacefully,” Afuye said.
Representative of the Okete family, Mr Dapo Adebayo, accused the traditional ruler of charging some members of the family to court on trumped-up charges and dealing unjustly with them.
“It has got to a stage that the monarch no longer allows us to gather to celebrate marriages and other events. We are being treated like slaves in our own land.
“All these must stop and we need the intervention of government to put an end to this maltreatment,” Adebayo said.
For peace to reign, Adebayo requested the traditional ruler to accede to the request to change the family’s name from Okete to Obalende and replace the current Elenta chieftaincy holder, Chief Meshack Alonge, with their preferred candidate.
Debunking the accusations, Oba Adeyeye, accused the family of polarising the community by stoking the fire of acrimony over the installation of one Chief Alonge as the Elenta of Ugbesi community.
Oba Adeyeye said the Okete family had been pushing for autonomy at different times before Justices Silas Oyewole and Jide Aladejana panels of Inquiry, but failed owing to the fact they had no history to support their case.
“I am just pleading with them to allow peace to reign. Governor Oyebanji stands for peace. Let it be known that the family doesn’t have eligibility to the royal stool. They are not part of the ruling house.
“They are using this to foment trouble. I didn’t send any of them to jail. It was the police that charged them to court and they were found guilty and sentenced accordingly.
“It wasn’t me that charged them to court as being alleged,” Oba Adeyeye said.
READ ALSO: Yahaya Bello: Kogi Assembly wants EFCC chair removed, prosecuted
