Ikeja Obaship tussle: Group seeks Ooni’s intervention

Prominent leaders in the Ikeja community of Lagos have appealed to the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, the Ojaja 11, to promptly wade into the impasse created by the delay in the installation of a traditional ruler in Ikeja, the state capital.
The leaders, under the aegis of Gbobaniyi Royal Association of Ikejaland, said while it was clear that the appointment of an Oba in Ikeja was entirely a Lagos State affair, it had become crucial to involve the Ooni, “being the custodian of customs and tradition in Yorubaland.”
In a petition to the Ile-Ife monarch, signed by its President, Chief Babatunde Alaran, and Secretary, Mr. Olugbenga Soremi, the elite group said the Ikeja kingmakers had, since three years ago, appointed a monarch for Ikeja but that politicians had refused to let the will of the kingmakers come to pass.
Urging the Ooni to prevail on the Lagos State Government to install an Oba in Ikeja, the elite group noted that the Ikeja kingmakers, led by the late former deputy governor of Lagos State, Chief Rafiu Jafojo, had since December 2014, sent the name of Prince Shamusideen Adeleye to the Ikeja local council as the community’s Oba-elect.
The last monarch in Ikeja, Oba Rauf Matemi, Amore 1, joined his ancestors in October, 2014.
Pleading for the intervention of the royal father, the Gbobaniyi Royal Association said Adeleye, the Oba-elect, had since completed all the traditional norms, scrutiny and rites needed to become the new Olu, which prompted the kingmakers to recommend him to the state government, through the local council, for installation.
“We humbly request your immediate intervention into the matter with the Lagos State Government so as to halt raging but unnecessary insinuations, speculations and hearsay within the kingdom,” the group appealed.
Meanwhile, the President, Ikeja Youth Development, Alhaji Adeshina Balogun, has also, in a statement, warned against “undue politicisation of the obaship contest in our community.”