One of the leading contestants for the stool of the Alaafin of Oyo in Oyo State, Prince Afolabi Ademola Adesina from the Adeitan Royal House has tasked the Engineer ‘Seyi Makinde-led government in the state to be alive to its responsibilities.
He said the government should be especially thorough and dispassionate in supervising the processes involved in the selection of a new monarch for Oyo town.
Prince Afolabi Ademola Adesina made his submission in a statement he issued on Tuesday and which was made available to PMParrot/Parrot Xtra Magazine.
Read the full text of the Prince’s statement here:
First and fore most I condole with the Oyomesi-in-council, all royal families in Alaafin of Oyo dynasty, the Oyo community at large, family and friends of the late Alapinni of Oyo, Chief Abdul Rasheed Sheu for the departure of the loved citizens. He was one of the most fair minded members of Oyomesi.
It saddens our mind that a beautiful soul like him departed at a time that the Oyos need him most. May Allah be pleased with his return and make Al-Janat Fridaous his final abode (Amen).
Subsequent to our various calls on the Oyo state government and Atiba local government for unjustly removing the names of the contestants for the exalted stool of Alafin, the Government at the state and local government are glorifying their inefficiency and inadequacy of implementing their decision of 1976.
I demand answers from both tiers of government on the reason why they insisted to make all other nine Royal families including Olawoyin the victims of their inefficiency and inability to enforce their decision that emanated from the Ladeinde Commission Of Enquiry of 1976. I insist that going about usage of 1961 Chieftaincy declaration that has been declared defective by various panels of enquiries in choosing new Alaafin is illegal and non-conformity to the law.
In the spirit of justice, equity and fairness, the government should declare the ongoing processes of choosing new Alafin suspended till the matter is decided in the court of law because the instrument chosen by government to direct the interview/screening process to select new Alafin has been declared defective, so also the constituents of the screening committee.
This culminated into the discrepancy in the pieces of information emerging from the ongoing process of choosing a new Alaafin, as one member of the Oyomesis which has been acting dictatorially with the support of one other member to overrule the majority decisions of the members of the noble hierarchy in Oyo Chieftaincy orderliness.
The two tiers of the government responsible for this process should explain to the world their parochial interests in making the other nine Royal families including Olawoyin the victims of their inefficiency and inadequacy to call the traditional council to implement their administrative decision of 46 years.
This should not stop any aspirant out of the eleven families declared by the government of Oyo state on 8th December in the year 1976 because it was quoted in the letter that the section of the law has been declared defective as it didn’t represent the true customary law governing the appointment of Alaafin.
I hereby demand on behalf of all nine other victims of this ineffectiveness from Oyo State government and Atiba Local Government why they are finding it difficult to implement their decision and trying to make other nine Royal families as the declared in the communication to the families in Alafin of Oyo dynasty a victim of their inefficiency.
This is because they owe it as a duty to summon the Oyo Chieftaincy committee to implement their decision as earlier communicated to us. It is against this background that I call for total cancellation of this infant process of selecting a new Alaafin till the determination of all matters in the court.
It is in line with this that I cited in our previous press statement the matter between Ojukwu and the then Military Government of Lagos State, a supreme court decision of “(1986) All NLR 233” that reported that The Nigerian Constitution is founded on the rule of law the primary meaning of which is that everything must be done according to the law.
More relevant to the case in hand, the rule of law means that disputes as to the legality of acts of government are to be decided by judges who are wholly independent of the executive.
See Wade on Administrative Law 5th Edition p. 22-27. That is the position in this country where the judiciary has been made independent of the executive by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1979 as amended by Decree No. 1 of 1984 and No. 17 of 1985.
The judiciary cannot shirk its sacred responsibility to the nation to maintain the rule of law. It is both in the interest of the government and all persons in Nigeria. The law should be even-handed between the government and citizens.
SIGNED
Prince Afolabi Ademola Adesina
Adeitan Royal House
20 September, 2022.
