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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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Owu kingmakers shun meeting with Obasanjo
EFFORTS to amicably resolve the crisis emanating from the Owu kingship tussle suffered a setback yesterday.
Five of the eight kingmakers shunned a peace meeting at the instance of President Olusegun Obasanjo. The meeting was to hold at the Ita-Eko, Abeokuta, Ogun State private residence of the President at 2 p.m.
The chiefs are at a loggerhead with the President over the selection of a new Olowu.
They are Chiefs Rufus Onifade, (Akogun Owu), Obawale Osungboye (Obamaja Owu) Rahman Ogunbiyi, (Oyega Owu), Sunday Oguntolu, (Omolaasin Owu) and Sufianu Olaifa (Olosi Owu).
A letter dated September 3, 2004, by the palace secretary had invited the chiefs to the meeting with the President in his private residence.
But as at 2.30 p.m. when The Guardian visited the venue it was gathered that none of the chiefs involved was present though the President had arrived early enough for the meeting. When The Guardian called at the residence of Chief Sufianu to find out the reason for the boycott, the five were met holding their own meeting.
Chief Onifade, the most senior of the kingmakers, told The Guardian that they shunned the meeting because by tradition all such meetings must be held at the palace.
He argued that it would therefore not be proper to hold such meeting outside the palace.
The Owu palace had been shut and the staff sent home since the crisis began on August 9.
The other four kingmakers spoke in the same vein, insisting that they would not attend any of such meetings outside the palace.
The five kingmakers had accused the President of attempting to impose his favourite candidate on them.
The President, as the Balogun Owu, is one of the kingmakers. The other two are Chiefs Adisa Adewolu and Ola Yusuf.
The results of two elections held to pick a popular candidate were annulled.
After the second annulment, the five kingmakers held a press conference where they insisted that Prince Tayo Fadairo won that election and that they would stand by that result.
Few days after, they were arrested and detained for allegedly organising thugs to vandalise Chief Yusuf's residence. They were released the next day through the intervention of the Ogun State government.
Yesterday's meeting, The Guardian, gathered would have been the first between them and President Obasanjo after their release.
The last Olowu, Oba Adisa Olawale Odeleye, joined his ancestors on June 11, 2003.
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