- Petition Tinubu
Prominent leaders in the Ikeja community of Lagos have cautioned against the imposition of an unpopular candidate as the new Olu of Ikeja, in the build-up to the appointment of a new monarch.
The leaders, under the aegis of Gbobaniyi Royal Association of Ikejaland, in a fresh petition to the former Lagos State governor and the National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, said they got wind of plans by some persons to lobby the Lagos State Government into installing a candidate, who did not go through due process.
In the petition to Tinubu, signed by its President, Chief Babatunde Alaran, and Secretary, Mr. Olugbenga Soremi, the group said 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 Government Council as the Oba-elect.
The last Ikeja monarch, Oba Rauf Matemi, Amore 1, joined his ancestors in October 2014.
Pleading for the intervention of the former governor “who is an indigene of Ikeja,” the Gbobaniyi Royal Association said Adeleye had since completed all the traditional norms, scrutiny and rites needed to become the new O l u , which prompted the kingmakers to recommend him to the state government, through the local council, for installation.
Adeleye had since completed all the traditional norms
“We humbly request your immediate intervention in the matter with the Lagos State Government so as to halt raging but unnecessary insinuations, speculations and hearsay within the kingdom,” they appealed.
Meanwhile, the President of Ikeja Youth Development, Alhaji Adeshina Balogun, has also in a statement warned against “undue politicization of the obaship contest in our community.”
Balogun said the warning became necessary following “an unfounded rumour that Prince Adeleye is a member of the 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 time is ticking for the installation of an Oba in Ikeja.”
