Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi
Tension enveloped the Town of Ile-Ife on Sunday, January 3, as the controversy surrounding the selection of the new Second-in-command to the Ooni of Ife, caused a rift among the supporters of the ten contenders from the Aga ruling house of Ile-Ife.
The position became vacant sequel to the death of the late Obalufe of Ile-Ife, Oba Solomon Omisakin.
The Obalufe is the traditional ruler of Iremo in Ile-Ife; head of Ife kingmakers and next to the Ooni in hierarchy according to the tradition of the ancient town.
The process of selecting a new Obalufe started with the inauguration a committee under the chairmanship of Comrade Ayoola Olafiranye. The committee was saddled with the responsibility of screening all the contenders for the stool and report its findings to the ruling house.
The committee invited all the 10 aspirants and they were screened but before it could submit its reports, majority of the contenders accused the committee of planning to announce the name of an aspirant from the female lineage, Elu Abayomi and that Elu was not even qualified to contest.
This led to a clash at the ruling house on Sunday as the supporters of the contenders threatened to shut down the town if Elu Abayomi was announced as planned. This development has caused serious tension in Ife.
One of the contenders, Fatai Adiyeloja expressed concern over the action of the committee and cautioned the aggrieved youth in Ife to remain calm, assuring them that the matter would be resolved.
A traditional Chief in Ife, Chief Atimi Bada, Logun Apata of Ile-Ife told Daily Trust that the contenders for the vacant stool of the Obalufe must come from male lineage and that those from female lineage could contest only if there is no competent person from the male lineage.
According to him, “this rancour was avoidable if the committee had done the right thing in a transparent manner. We all know that the female lineage can contest only if there was no competent person from the male lineage. But in this situation, there are 9 contenders from male lineage, yet, the committee attempted to pick the only one person that came out from the female lineage. It is not right”.