Osun monarchs ask Governor Oyetola to suspend Oluwo for beating up fellow traditional ruler

SEVERAL traditional rulers in Osun State have asked Governor Gboyega Oyetola to suspend the Oluwo of Iwo Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi from office after he embarrassed them by beating up a fellow monarch at a meeting yesterday.

Reknown for his controversial and maverick mature, Oba Akanbi, who recently sent his Canadian wife packing, was reported to have punched his colleague, Oba Dhikrullahi Olaniran, the Agbowu of Ogbagbaa during a meeting yesterday. They had gone for peace talks at the zonal headquarters of the Nigeria Police Force in Osogbo the Osun State capital where the Iwo monarch lost it and assailed his colleague.

Embarrassed by the actions of the Oluwo, several monarchs in Osun State have sent a petition to Governor Oyetola, asking him to use his constitutional powers to punish the errant Iwo king. Oba Habeeb Adetoyese, the Olu of Ileogbo, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, called on the governor to save their institution from ridicule.

Oba Adetoyese said: “In October last year, the Oluwo wrote a petition against us to the assistant inspector general of police (AIG) that royal fathers were threatening his life and selling his land. Then AIG Oyebade warned that he would not condone any form of trouble from our area and directed that we should have a meeting and resolve the issue.

"We also saw the governor and he gave same instructions, so a peace meeting was fixed for Iwo Local Government Area secretariat. That day, the disrupted the meeting as he came with thugs and when the government observed that the first meeting did not yield good result, another meeting was fixed for last Friday and letters were sent, inviting us to the meeting.

"At the meeting, we were asked to introduce ourselves and we all did but when the Oluwo was asked to talk, he accused me of selling his land. He raised the same allegation against the Agbowu of Ogbagbaa and the Onigege of Gege.

"I told the meeting that I did not sell Iwo land and the commissioner for local government told us that since the matter had to do with land, he could not intervene. He advised that parties should approach the court to decide on the matter or meet the governor and the AIG was still speaking to us on the position of the commissioner when then Oluwo started shouting that there would be chaos."

Former aviation minister Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, an indigene of Osun State, went a step further, saying the monarch should be deposed. He described the incident as unacceptable and sacrilegious.

Chief Fani-Kayode said: “When a land is ravaged by poverty even drug dealers, armed robbers and Yahoo fraudsters are paraded as elites and the kingship stool is auctioned to the highest bidder.  The Emir of Iwo beat up his fellow traditional ruler, which is unacceptable and sacrilegious and he ought to be deposed.”