Sacked Ondo monarch plans to celebrate 20th coronation anniversary

Tension has gripped residents of the Idepe community, in the Okitipupa council area of Ondo state, following a plan by its monarch, Oba Adetoye Obatuga, to celebrate its 20th coronation anniversary despite being sacked by the court over a faulty selection exercise by the kingmakers.

Recall that both the High Court and Appeal Court have sacked the monarch from the throne.

The Court then ordered that a fresh selection process which must exclude the sacked monarch and the Ruling House which produced him be initiated by the government forthwith.

However, some contenders to the throne, through their lawyers, Adekola Olawuyi SAN and Kehinde Aladeduntire, in a petition to the lnspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, said the celebration would plunge the community into needless war by those for and against the monarch of the town.

The lawyers alleged in the petition that “the way the state Commissioner of Police is handling the case might jeopardize the peace of the community.

According to them “It is disturbing that despite providing relevant pieces of information and documents concerning the Jegun Chieftaincy tussle in their community, the Commissioner of Police rather than caution Prince Michael Adetoye Obatuga to desist from action capable of undermining the existing peace in the community gave his endorsement to his plans to disobey clear and subsisting declarations of the competent court

“What is more worrisome is the fact that the Commissioner of Police further threatened that he would not hesitate to arrest our clients in case of any breach of peace in the community.

“We are indeed very surprised at these prejudicial stances of the Commissioner of Police even as he, the Commissioner maintained that he would carry out any directive of his former boss.

“It is on record that in the year 2005, the community was plunged into serious security risks and breakdown of law and order on account of the attempt by Prince Michael Adetoye Obatuga and his stooges to carry out the function as an Oba in disobedience to the judgment of the court leading to murder of many and destruction of properties, and various degrees of violence.

“Since the said incident, there have been warnings against similar events such as the one Prince Michael Adetoye Obatuga and his stooges are planning in Idepe-Okitipupa.

“It is also on record that the Government as a preventive measure set up a committee from the three warring groups while the community palace “Ogwa” was to remain closed with the Divisional Police Officer to have the key. It is of note that the police were always being involved in this development.

“We are constraint to say that the failure of the Commissioner of Police to caution Prince Michael Adetoye Obatuga and his stooges against the plan to celebrate what he termed 20 years of coronation is a sheer deviation of the initial arrangement and thus an invitation to serious crises and breakdown of law and order.

“As ministers in the temple of justice, we wonder why the Commissioner of Police cannot advise Prince Michael Adetoye Obatuga to halt such a plan and allow the status quo remain but rather gave him consent to further his sinister plan despite having his appeal against the Judgment which removed/restrained him and his application for stay of execution dismissed with cost.

“This clearly shows partiality and bias by the Commissioner of Police.

They declared that “Our clients do not have any further confidence in the Commissioner of Police in the handling of the case as it smacks of bias and naked partiality.”