Palpable tension has enveloped the Ijare community of Ifedore Local Government Area of Ondo state over the selection of a traditional ruler for the ancient town.
This is just as some major key players have been dragged to court following the alleged exclusion of some candidates from the ruling house from the throne.
They alleged some elements within the town of planning to forcefully draft candidates who are not entitled to the throne to the race.
In a press statement signed by a group known as Concerned Indigenes of Ijare, they lamented that members of the Sejeokun ruling house have been united since the selection process started until some self-appointed adjudicators came on board to deny some candidates the right to be part of the selection process.
This, according to the Concerned indigenes led to litigation, alleging the local council chairman, Alex Oladimeji, who hails from the town of plotting to force one of his cousins in the race on the community as Olujare.
The statement reads, “the purported forwarding of four, out of the thirteen names that applied to be Olujare and initially emplaced before the Kingmakers (Afobajes), was a product of arbitrariness meant to unlawfully nay illegally exclude the names of candidates that are believed to constitute a threat to the candidates some cabals want to desperately force on the people.
“It is heartwarming that aggrieved stock of the Sejeokun Ruling House, the Olukekere/Osunpamisi descendants, has gone to court to challenge the purported illegal suspension of Chief Aarinmo.
“The unlawful exclusion of his candidate, Prince Kola Oyewole, and the moonlight frivolous narratives that seek to dislocate the inextricable link the Olukekere/Osunpamisi stock of Sejeokun Ruling House as to the Olujare stool.
“Traditionally, it is within the purview of the Kingmakers to choose the Olujare, and the leader of the distinguished Chiefs has cautioned himself from embarking on illegality by processing the four selective candidates sent to him, on the receipts of letters of complaints of unlawful exclusion and court processes contesting the legality of the advancement.
“It is needless, to say the least, that High Chief Wemimo Olaniran, the Sapetu of Ijare, has been subjected to vicious attacks by paid agents who want to goad him to tread the inglorious path of injustice, unfairness and illegality.
“Permit us to state, very unequivocally, that the government of Ondo state has since distanced itself from being dragged into legitimizing illegality, as the Chairman of Ifedore Local Government, Hon. Alex Oladimeji, who is prejudicially pushing for one of the candidates that is his cousin, has made the whole world to believe”
But Oladimeji, the council chairman, cautioned stakeholders especially kingmakers and Princes battling for the stool of Ijare to stop dragging his name into the selection process of a new monarch.
Oladimeji insisted that he had no power to impose a new monarch on the town considering various Chieftaincy laws in the state, saying the allegation against him by some indigenes of the town was unfounded.
He said due process would be followed in picking the new traditional ruler for the town and said, “As a local government Chairman, there are rules and regulations guiding the selection of Obas, not only in my community (Ijare), but all communities have their declaration/laws that govern them and there is an Ondo State Chieftaincy Law, nobody can influence, not even me as the Council Chairman.
“There is no way I can influence anybody to emerge as the King or force anybody on my town. I am not a member of the (Ijare) Royal family, I am not part of the people that screened (Princes), and I am not part of the Kingmakers (Afobaje).
“I don’t have any role to play rather than whatever they do they send it to my office and I will follow up with what the law says. I find it strange that I was being fingered that I want to force one of my cousins on the community.
“I don’t have any cousin among the people that are contesting for the stool; but the truth of the matter is that there was a protest and the protest was against the Sapetu of Ijare (High Chief) Barrister Wemimo Olaniyan, alleging him that he didn’t allow the selection of new Olujare to continue.
“I am not supposed to be dragged to this issue at all. The people accusing me wrongly should go back to their families and resolve their problems and stop dragging my name. I am a local government chairman and I work with established laws, I can’t create laws by myself,”
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