•Lana (left) with some high chiefs at the palace in Ibadan ...yesterday.
PHOTO: FEMI ILESANMI
Another
chieftaincy line in Ibadan, the Seriki, has headed for the court to
stop the Oyo State Government and the Olubadan-In-Council from
installing the Balogun of Ibadan, High Chief Saliu Adetunji, as the
Olubadan of Ibadan land.
The Head of the acclaimed line, Chief
Adebayo Oyediji, and five others yesterday filed a motion seeking an
order compelling the government and the Olubadan-In-Council to instal
Oyediji as the Olubadan.
Oyediji, 89, and others based their
prayer on a 1989 Supreme Court judgment, which ordered the recognition
of the Seriki as the third line to produce the Olubadan.
According to him and the motion filed by
his lawyer, A.G. Adeniran, before the Oyo state Chief Judge, Justice
Mukthar Abimbola, the Olubadan -in-Council had since 1989 when the
Seriki line obtained a Supreme Court judgment in their favour, denied
them the opportunity of being admitted into the Olubadan line.
The businessman alleged disregard for
rule of law on the part of the Olubadan -in-Council. He said he was the
next to be installed Olubadan based on the said judgment.
The motion will be heard next Wednesday.
According to him, the alleged
marginalisation of the Seriki line began since the last Otun Seriki,
Chief Adisa Akinloye, was denied the opportunity before he died in 2007.
He said that Seriki was the third line in the chieftaincy of Olubadan,
adding upon the denial, the Supreme Court in 1989 ordered that Seriki
line be included as the third line to the appointment of Olubadan.
Oyediji claimed that the problem with
the Seriki line started with the making of the 1959 Ekerin Balogun of
Ibadan Chieftaincy Declaration which put Seriki under the Ekerin Balogun
of Ibadan and provided for the first time that Seriki can only be
promoted to Ekerin Balogun only if there are two simultaneous vacancies
occurring in the Ashipa and Ekerin Balogun titles.
He explained that upon winning against
the then Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Oloyede Asanke, and all the Chiefs in
Balogun and Olubadan line, after challenging the said chieftaincy
declaration, the Olubadan then prevailed on the Seriki chiefs not to
insist on three lines for the Olubadan chieftaincy, but that rather
chiefs in the Seriki line should cross to Ekerin Balogun and Ekerin
Olubadan on the two lines whenever there is a vacancy in any of the two
lines.
According to him, the out-of-court
agreement was that the Balogun and Olubadan lines would each have two
steps of promotion from Ekarun to Ekerin in their lines before the
Seriki line shall have its own promotion to Ekerin in any of the two
lines.
Having been denied the opportunity for
long and following the consecutive deaths of high chiefs Sulaimon
Omiyale and Omowale Kuye from both sides in November and December last
year, Chief Oyediji said that it was the time of Seriki to have a shot
at the Olubadan, stressing: “When the agreement was reached, the late
Oba Odulana was the only senior ranking high chief in the Olubadan line
and we were in the same rank. If that agreement was followed, I am the
next person to succeed him.”
In the new motion filed by his lawyer,
Adeniran, dated 19/01/2016 marked I/421/07 seeking an amendment to
reflect the earlier order of the court, he sought a declaration that “by
the provision of the consent judgment delivered by the high court in
suit No. I/313/88, it is the turn of the claimants to produce the next
Olubadan of Ibadan on both the Olubadan line and the Balogun line”.
He also sought the order of the court
“setting aside the purported appointments made by the 1st defendant (Oba
Odulana) to fill vacancies existing in the chieftaincy titles of Ekerin
Olubadan, Ashipa Olubadan, Osi Olubadan, Otun Olubadan and Balogun
Olubadan of Ibadan since the 21st of November, 2008 up till the last
appointment he made on the 1st of January, 2016”.
Oyediji also called for an order
“setting aside the purported approval granted by the Governor of a Oyo
state on the 5th of January, 2016 or thereabout to the appointments made
by the 1st defendant on the 1st of January, 2016 to fill vacancies
existing in the chieftaincy titles”.
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