The Olu of Orile-Ilawo in Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun State, Oba Alexander MacGregor, has dismissed insinuations that he is at a loggerhead with the Osile of Egba land, Oba Adedapo Tejuoso.
Oba Tejuoso said those who alleged that he was fighting the Osile, were mischief makers, whose stock in trade is selling of lands belonging to six communities and were hell-bent on destroying the customs and tradition of the forebears.
Oba MacGregor spoke against the backdrop of the recent indefinite suspension of his 10 chiefs who were sacked for allegedly selling more than 2,600 hectares of land belonging to six villages, as well as disloyalty and insubordination to the king.
He reaffirmed that he is the sole custodian of customs, culture and tradition of Ilawo kingdom and would not sit back and allow unscrupulous and mischievous elements to send more than six villages with their culture and tradition into extinction with their alleged criminal tendencies.
He stated that the suspended chiefs were title holders in Ilawo not of another town which empowered him as a traditional ruler to suspend any earring chief according to native law and customs and running under the shield of Oba Tejuoso cannot help them.
While going on memory lane , he noted that there was a union of multiple towns called Oke-Ona, noting that the union was a loose one and not a compulsory one, adding that it was an independent native community coming together in 1840 or there about to form Oke- Ona.
He explained that the composition of Oke-Ona was not homogeneous and not from native community but a loose union of big individual kingdoms.
He further stressed that the customary chiefs are governed by Ilawo customs and tradition, adding that the chiefs were nothing but from Ilawo extractions under Ilawo traditional council of chiefs and the only custodian of customs, culture and tradition is no other person than the Olu of Orile-Ilawo.
Oba MacGregor added that customary chiefs in Ilawo only exist under custodian of the culture, tradition and customs of the kingdom and anytime short of that is a non-avoid.
“This people have wiped out more than six villages in Ilawo through unscrupulous act. “
The professor of biopharmaceutics turned king, pointed out that any traditional ruler is at liberty to grant chieftaincy title to any individuals that does validates his authority in other traditional rulers with separate autonomy domain, adding that from time in memorial, there can only be one king in a town but when the mischief makers involve in an unscrupulous act in their own domain and they were been suspended and now claiming allegiance to another traditional ruler different from their own immediate domain saying the act calls for total overall of their appraisal and disloyal tendencies .
He said: “Osile of Oke-Ona Egba was once a prescribe authority during the Ilawo interregnum period , this is the norms in any traditional settings, for every kingdom that does not have king you must have a prescribed authority who have very limited role to play in your kingdom.
“This is Oba’s Chief Laws and once a king emerges from the kingdom, the role of a prescribed authority ends there while the new authority takes charge of his domain with full autonomy.
“If they disagreed with the way and manner he removed them they should go to court for proper adjudication on the matter.
“Genesis of obaship came from the tradition, culture and customs,” he stated.
He declared that the suspension stands and when they are ready to explain the reason why their position should be reinstated and that they need to come back to the Ilawo palace for that purpose and not anybody’s palace.”
The traditional ruler further noted that the fundamental tenet of a chief is loyalty and subordination to a king but in their own issue reversed.
“I am fighting to prevent the genocide of my native community.” All these atrocities are committed at the villages in Orile Ilawo , I cannot sit here as the king and watch handful of people committing genocide,” he said.
(FROM: THISDAY)
