Lagos set to name new Ikeja monarch – Investigation

There are strong indications that the Lagos State Government will soon fill the vacant stool of the Olu of Ikeja, four years after the last monarch of the community passed on.
Sources close to a closed-door meeting between the Chairman of Ikeja Local Government area, Alhaji Mojeed Balogun, and a core pressure group in Ikeja, the Gbobaniyi Royal Association, at the weekend, said the council boss informed chiefs and elders of the community “to work towards mending fences, as the state government is set to name a new Oba for Ikeja.”
A source present at the meeting said Balogun assured members of the association that laid down tradition and culture of the community would not be set aside in determining who becomes the new Oba of Ikeja, stressing, “The kingmakers have done the needful, while the council, too, had played its role, and we are optimistic that very soon, His Excellency, Governor Akinwumi Ambode, will approve an Oba for Ikeja.”
Earlier at the meeting, according to the source, the President of Gbobaniyi Royal Association, Chief Babatunde Alaran, had informed the council boss that the Ikeja kingmakers, led by the late former deputy governor of Lagos State, Chief Rafiu Jafojo, had since December name 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, he informed, joined his ancestors in October, 2014.
Alaran reportedly said, “We are, therefore, urging you, sir, to pass this message across to our action governor, to act on the recommendation of the kingmakers, as it represents the common will of the community.
“When the Oba-elect was named by the kingmakers, whom the late Chief Jafojo headed, all the five kingmakers endorsed the choice, having ensured strict adherence to thorough screening of all contestants, native rites, and tradition.”
Meanwhile, the President of Ikeja Youth Development, Alhaji Adeshina Balogun, has also in a statement warned against “undue politicisation of the obaship contest in our community.”
Balogun said the warning became necessary following “an unfounded rumour that Prince Adeleye is a member of PDP (Peoples Democratic Party).
“They said it at a time; the Oba-elect denied it, saying he had been with the progressives all his life and now, they have started again, knowing that the time is ticking for the installation of an Oba in Ikeja,” he complained.