Ekiti community rejects ‘Fayose-imposed’ monarch

Regent: official car withdrawn from me at gunpoint

Residents of Orin Odo-Ekiti in Ikole Local Government Area have urged the state government not to recognise Oba Adebisi Ogunjobi as their monarch.

They accused former Governor Ayo Fayose of imposing Oba Ogunjobi as the Olorin without traditional rites performed on him and without following due process.

Led by the Regent of Orin Odo, Princess Oluwakemi Ogundana-Ajisafe, the community’s residents spoke yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, during a visit to Deputy Governor Bisi Egbeyemi.

They urged the government to stop Ogunjobi from parading himself as the Olorin for peace to reign.

Describing the way Fayose allegedly imposed his preferred candidate on the community as “bizarre, unconventional and strange to tradition,” Princess Ogundana-Ajisafe said the kingmakers and other stakeholders were not carried along in the installation of the monarch.

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She alleged that the former governor ordered that the two candidates contesting for the royal stool be blindfolded and also ordered chiefs to line up behind their choice as king.

The regent regretted that Fayose allegedly used soldiers and other security agents to harass chiefs and community leaders in a bid to impose his preferred candidate as monarch.

Besides, the Regent told Egbeyemi that the official Ford car used by his father and immediate past Olorin of Orin Odo, Oba William Abiodun Ajisafe, was taken away from her at gunpoint by agents of the former governor.

She added that she sought Fayose’s permission before travelling to the United States of America (U.S.A) in 2015 after succeeding her father.

Princess Ogundana-Ajisafe said the community was invaded on the alleged order of the former governor with many of the chiefs arrested.

She said: “Fayose wanted to use my father’s staff of office to install his preferred person as the Olorin, but it is the name of my father that is inscribed on the staff of office.