Adebayo Adeleke, the Osun State commissioner for local government and chieftaincy affairs, has received a warning from kingmakers in Iree not to nominate a warrant chief.
The Kingmakers claimed that Adeleke chose to appoint a warrant chief in order to favor his preferred candidate for the stool of Aree of Iree. They also asserted that Adeleke’s choice would obstruct the process of choosing the best candidate to fill the vacant stool of the traditional ruler of the town in the state’s Boripe local government area.
Oba Jimoh Olayonu died about four years ago, leaving the throne vacant. Since then, all attempts to name a new king for the town have failed.
The kingmakers pledged to block any attempts by the commissioner to appoint Serifat Adebayo, the Iyalode of Iree, as a member of the town’s kingmakers while denouncing the claimed decision.
The letter from the commissioner announcing Adebayo’s nomination as one of the kingmakers arrived after the kingmakers had called a meeting to discuss the selection of a new monarch.
They promised to reject the action because it set a poor precedent.
The Kingmakers, who were led by the Aogun of Iree, Saliu Atoyebi, argued that it was against the town’s customs and traditions to appoint a woman as a member of the Kingmakers.
“It has never been in the history of Iree that a woman will be selected to be among the kingmakers. Such will not be entertained in their lifetime.
“When they brought the letter from the State government that Iyalode has been appointed to join the kingmakers, we rejected it. Anything that is capable of causing disunity or uproar in Iree over the selection of our monarch will not be allowed.
“If the government said they want to force on us another chief to join the kingmakers, they should choose another person, not a woman. It has never been in the history of Aree in Council that women are included in the selection of a new monarch. They should not do anything that will tamper with our culture and tradition.
“If government should be allowed to do whatever they wish, and we allowed it, history will not be kind to us after we might have left, because it is our names that people will be mentioning, nobody will talk about those who were in government when it was done,” the Kingmakers lamented.
The Commissioner, who is a native of the town, is accused of endorsing a candidate for the Aree stool, according to the Iree Kingmakers.
Adebayo Adeleke, the Osun Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, responded by stating that it is only the government’s job to select a warrant chief.
Adeleke insisted that any respectable member of the impacted community might be nominated because such appointments were traditionally made through the local government authority.
“The chiefs or anybody does not have the right or power to reject anybody appointed by the government as warrant chief.”
He admitted that some warrant chiefs had been appointed in similar circumstances, but noted that Kingmakers needed to be informed on what the law permitted.
The Commissioner added that Chief Serifat Adebayo, the Iyalode of Iree, was appointed as a kingmaker to take the place of the Eesa of Iree, who passed away some time ago.