Deputy Editor, Sam Nwaoko, who was in Awo-Ekiti community in Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area of Ekiti State, reports the tension in the community created by the disputed emergence of Sulaiman Azeez Olaleye, Aladejuyigbe IV as the Alawo of Awo-Ekiti.
It had taken many colourations, the most dangerous of which was the religious angle, which the people of the community said was the source of their greatest worry. The serenity of Àwò-Ekiti is still palpable, regardless. The town is still its old rusty self. But the tension still dwells among the people. The most significant pointer to this tension and unease was the blockage of some of the roads in the town as well as the road blocks created by the detachment of mobile policemen deployed in the town in the wake of the crisis.
The armed policemen were deployed in the town to enforce peace and to also enforce the curfew that had been imposed on the community by the state government. In the morning of Friday, January 20, 2017, a team of the policemen was seen sheltered under a tree by the road leading to Iropora and Ido communities, which is the main road through the town.
Another team of the policemen, which had also created a checkpoint, was at the tip of a hill from which an imposing church could be seen uphill ahead. The security agents had also, through a blockade prevented entry to major street, which is actually the first on the left, as one drives through the main road. The blocked street leads to an imposing mosque, which residents said was the Àwò central mosque.
These were some of the tell tale signs that all is not well in Àwò. Apart from these, the people were wary to discuss the Alawo crisis in the community, a place that the people who volunteered to speak, said had never witnessed such a crisis or tension for a long while. “Since I came to settle here about 20 years ago, there’s never been this kind of crisis. I’ve neither witnessed one nor heard about it from the people. So, this is not just surprising, it is also worrisome because the people of Awo are naturally so accommodating and generous,” a resident of the community told Nigerian Tribune.
The man, who chose not to be named “because I’m not from this state and I may be misinterpreted as taking sides”, said he decided to settle in Awo “because of the hospitality and the generosity of the people.” He said the matter had lingered and “should have been sorted out by now but because of some people who have decided to fuel it.”
The issue in contention is simply the Alawo of Awo stool, currently occupied by Oba Sulaiman Azeez Olaleye, Aladejuyigbe IV. Some members of the Aladejuyigbe royal family of the town, led by Chief Eben Alade, who said he is the head of Aladejuyigbe’s royal family disowned Olaleye as a member of the family he superintends over. Alade, a retired Permanent Secretary told newsmen in Ado Ekiti: “I am the head of Aladejuyigbe family in Awo and as far as history is concerned, there were three Aladejuyigbes that had ruled the town. The first Aladejuyigbe Oyinyosawawo was our progenitor. So if Ajibade feels he is from this royal family, he should point to his ancestor among these people.”
Alade added: “I am the head of the family, I know history of our dynasties. What we are contesting was the propriety of the government’s action to appoint a non-prince as our monarch. Hardly can you see any family without Muslims and Christians co-habiting peacefully. So the rumour that we are fighting religious war is unfounded.
To him, the crisis “would have not have arisen if government had exercised restraint on this issue, because when we learnt that government was planning to present the new Alawo with the staff of office, we approached the court to seek for injunction barring the exercise and before the exparte motion was entertained, government had performed the exercise.”
But the government denied the allegations by Alade, saying all the due processes were followed in the appointment and recognition of the current Aladejuyigbe.
The state’s Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr Kolapo Kolade, who is a lawyer, said the 12 kingmakers in the town voted to select Olaleye after five eligible princes were recommended for the throne.
Kolade said it was wrong to have accused the state government of manipulating the process, saying “the government only began the selection process after Justice Dele Omotoso of Ekiti State High Court had disposed of the case instituted against Olaleye.”
Refuting the claim that the monarch was imposed on the town, Kolade said: “The injunction granted them abated on August 6, 2015 and the kingmakers sat on the same day to vote where Prince Olaleye scored six votes to defeat his closest rival, Prince Adesoji Alade, who scored two votes.
“Even at that, we didn’t present the monarch with any staff of office until the eligibility case instituted against him was trashed by the court. The governor only acted as an approving authority and has no power to manipulate or arm-twist the kingmakers.”
The embattled monarch’s first reaction to the entire matter was a call for peace and unity, saying “I am for all and I am a man of peace.” On the claim that he was not one of the Aladejuyigbe, he reacted thus: “If they don’t believe in Jesus Christ; if they don’t believe in Prophet Muhammad, if they don’t believe in God, they would at least believe in Ifa. Whether we like to accept it or not, as Yorubas, we all believe that there is Ifa and our people believe in it. That is why they chose Ifa to make the selection. They consulted an Ifa priest who had come from as far away as Ibadan, on the 6th of August, 2015.
“I was among the nine candidates presented to Ifa. According to what I heard, the Ifa set aside four of the nine and of the five princes that were left, they said I was the most favourable. That was when the kingmakers could go ahead with the voting. From the ballot, I got six votes, another candidate got three while another got one. That’s how I emerged as the Alawo of Awo-Ekiti.
“Since that time, particularly on the second day of my emergence, they drove about five cars round the town shouting that they don’t have a king yet. And that it has been like that since then. They’ve been fomenting different kinds of trouble, including six forms of public protestations.”
He said all through 2016, there were troubles “but the Almighty Allah controls everything. I also enlisted the help of the police because whenever we sensed anything, we would call on the law enforcement agencies to notify them and they’ve been so supportive.”
But the new round of troubles led the state to impose a curfew on Sunday, January 15, 2017. The traditional ruler said: “On Sunday, January 15, things nearly went out if hand because I learnt that people were in their churches and mosques when some trouble makers went to one of the mosques and were throwing stones at them. All along, I’ve always appealed for peace but on that day, it went out of hand because the victims of the stoning felt that they too could react in like manner. That was how the entire town was thrown into chaos. They want to make it look like a religious matter but it is not. Awo is a very peaceful community and somehow, we are interwoven and related. If you are not my elder brother or sister, you could be my inlaw or my sister or brother’s inlaw. I don’t understand this people.”
On what he thinks would end the crisis, Oba Aladejuyigbe said: “I don’t know what they want. I called them to a meeting. They refused. They’ve just decided to make this community ungovernable for me. If you ask them, they said I’m a ‘stranger’ and I keep wondering what that means. They’ve been petulant. The people fomenting this trouble live at Oke Uba quarters and the people spearheading it are not members of the royal family.”
The leadership of the Christian and Muslim communities in the town had waded into the crisis and the curfew was lifted after five days. But members of the community are hopeful for peace. Businesses were affected while transportation, especially those transiting through the town to their own communities were adversely affected. Commercial drivers said the roadblocks constituted various kinds of impediments to their businesses.
An indigene of the community, Mr. Sunday Omotosho said “we love ourselves in Awo,” saying “in other communities, this could have led to the loss of lives.” however, Omotosho expressed surprise that the matter had lingered. “Some people have refused to let the matter die. We beg them and beg God to help us bring it to an end so that we can continue to live in peace.”
and then