Chairman of the eight
man selection committee for the new Olo-wu of Owu in Ogun State, President Olusegun Obas-anjo, has described last Mo-nday’s election in the Olowu’s palace as incon-clusive and incomplete, say-ing the committee must be disbanded.
Obasanjo, in a letter dated August 10, 2004, add-ressed to the Ogun State governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, observed that the exe-rcise was characterised by “anomalies which marred the entire process and made it inconclusive and made us unable to complete the exe-rcise.”
He said that the exercise carried out last Monday, by the warrant chiefs headed by himself, should be accepted as an inconclusive and incomplete exercise to select a candidate for the Owu stool in Abeokuta.
“The eight warrant chiefs that the state appointed and with me as chairman, should be disbanded as they had compromised themselves, abused their positions, and thus were incapable of cond-ucting a transparent, fair and equitable exercise to justify the confidence reposed in them.
“A new panel of warrant chiefs that will not be easily compromised and that would take their sacred responsi-bilities seriously with fair-ness and objectivity as their watchwords should be appo-inted to carry out the exercise whenever the governor deci-des that the exercise should be so carried out,” the presi-dent’s letter to Otunba Gbe-nga Daniel said.
Arguing his case, Obas-anjo said, “the warrant chiefs had thoroughly compr-omised themselves to the point that they could not fairly and honestly carry out the sacred responsibility and duty that the state gover-nment had entrusted to them. This revealed itself in a blat-ant disregard of the decl-aration.”
He explained that four of the aspirants to the stool sh-owed up at the Owu palace and were told by the head of the ruling family, Chief Akinbami that the other two candidates were on their way to the venue of the screening and interview.
The head of the ruling family, he added, identified the four and left the secretary of the ruling family behind to identify the other two when-ever they arrived at the palace.
“We waited for one hour for the other two to arrive and then after, we addressed the four candidates that were pre-sent and had been identified, hoping that the other two would arrive before the com-pletion of our exercise. In the process of executing our ma-ndate, I observed anomalies which marred the entire pro-cess and made it incon-clusive and made us unable to complete the exercise,” President Obasanjo said.
One of the contenders to the Olowu of Owu stool, Prince Adegboyega Dosumu, said yesterday that President Olusegun Obasanjo only suspended the election but did not tear the election result sheet.
Prince Dosumu who fiel-ded questions from journ-alists at the turning of the sod and handing over of univ-ersity documents of the Cre-scent University, Abeokuta, to the Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, declared that Monday’s election was inconclusive and that President Obasanjo had no ulterior motive for suspending the election to the Olowu stool.
Prince Dosumu, who explained that he was at Oke Owu new palace along with other contestants to the thr-one of Owu, said he left the venue of the election and wouldn’t know what trans-pired thereafter.
Five out of the eight Owu kingmakers had Monday, cast their votes for Prince Olutayo Adebuji Fadairo, a 43 year old industrialist, and the Akogun of Owu, Chief Rufus Alani Onifade, who led other four kingmakers to a press conference, Monday, said the result sheet was destr-oyed by President Obasanjo.
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