Osun: Elders Want Installation Of New Akinrun Reversed, Accuse Gov Oyetola Of Contempt

Some elders in Ikirun, Ifelodun Local Government, Osun State, on Thursday called for reversal of the appointment of the newly installed Akinrun of Ikirunland.

The elders who described the presentation of staff of office to the new Akirun as contempt of court saying Governor Adegboyega Oyetola must reverse the appointment.

The elders at a press conference in Osogbo, the state capital, said the state government did not follow the law in the process of installing Yunusa Akadiri and the subsequent presentation of staff of office to him at the government house, Abere.

Speaking on behalf of the elders, Prof Yakubu Fabiyi, said, “what the governor did is a contempt of court. He should remove him (monarch) because he was not installed in the right way.

“We don’t choose King by vote. It has a process. The one installed did not observe the tradition. It was as if they installed a chief. Governor has not appointed King in Ikirun. Gboleru ruling house has gone to court and there should not be any process until the case is discharged. It is the turn of Gboleru to produce the new monarch.

“In the history of Akinrun chieftaincy, our town has never had it so bad that the seat of Ikirun royal power and the traditional institution would be shut down violently. Our town has lamentably become a flashpoint of crisis and unrest owing to the chieftaincy crisis. How did we get here? This has remained the puzzle of all genuinely concerned elites and elders of Ikirun.

Efforts to get the Special Adviser to the Governor on Chieftaincy Matters, Rasaq Adeosun, proved abortive as calls and messages sent to his mobile phones were not responded to.

But, the Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Funke Egbemode, said the government has not done anything contrary to the law.

She said, “there are many thrones across the state waiting for approval to be filled and we are very painstaking in bringing memos to the executive council and we do our due diligence. If not since we began sitting in 2019, we would be approving monarchs every time.

“The stool of Akirun is not an exception, we did our due diligence, and we were not served any court injunction. The state was not restrained, we have no reason to want to commit any infraction. No injunction was served on us. Where there are legal battles, we allow the legal process to be sorted before memos were brought to the council. So nothing was stopping us from installing the Akirun as a government because there was no injunction served on the government,” Egbemode added.