Oba Saliu Adetunji, the Olubadan of Ibadanland has come out to explain that his much publicized statement on a ‘third term’ in office for Oyo’s Governor Abiola Ajimobi was a joke.
The monarch had been credited with a statement that he would have loved Governor Ajimobi to go for another term if the constitution permitted it.
During a meeting between the governor and monarchs in the state in Ibadan last week, Olubadan said that Ajimobi had done well as the state governor, adding that he deserved another term in office if the constitution had provided for a third term in office.
However, the monarch, in a statement signed by his Personal Assistant and Director, Media and Public Affairs, Adeola Oloko, revisited the statement on Sunday when Ibadan indigenes paid him a visit as part of the 2018 Ibadan Week.
According to the statement, Olubadan had no interest in recommending anyone for a political office, adding that some people had given his speech at the public function another meaning that did not represent his thought.
The statement said, “The Ajimobi third term statement credited to the monarch in the media was largely misunderstood because people could not read between the lines. He, however, appealed to all his children who are aggrieved over the statement not to take the matter to heart and read more about the use of language, idioms and sarcasm.
“As a monarch, I have no power over the election and re-election of anybody; let alone tenure extension that is unconstitutional. Besides, when I was exchanging banters with the governor, I was only cracking a joke with him as a son and my subject. Even, if Ajimobi offended us, it would be indecorous on my part to address him harshly. Besides, there is a subsisting judgment over the controversial chieftaincy review which awaits compliance. About four or five suits relating to the matter are still in court and have not been withdrawn.”
The statement added that the Olubadan had also denied ever receiving any gratification from Ajimobi or his proxies for cracking the third-term joke as being insinuated in some quarters, stressing that anyone with proof or evidence of such gratification from the governor should feel free to produce it.
It is also on record that the Olubadan was conspicuously absent at the wedding of Governor Ajimobi’s son to the daughter of Kano’s Governor Abdullahi Ganduje over the weekend.
Packaged by Alice Egbedele
