The Authentic Mogajis in Ibadan on Monday said that the proposed truce meeting being planned by the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes to resolve the crisis surrounding the installation of 21 kings by Governor Abiola Ajimobi in Ibadan would be meaningless unless the gunmen who attacked the Olubadan palace a week ago during the installation of baales in the palace were produced.

The CCII had said that a truce meeting was underway after a panel was constituted to meet with Ajimobi, the Osi Olubadan of Ibadan land, Rashidi Ladoja, and the Olubadan of Ibadan land, Oba Saliu Adetunji.

The 15-man Truth and Reconciliation Committee comprises of five members from the CCII, three each from the Christian and Muslim communities and four members from the Ibadan Elders Council.



But the Mogajis queried the constitution of the panel, saying it had, as members, groups that had publicly taken sides in the crisis, calling on Ladoja and the Olubadan to boycott the meeting.

The group’s spokesman, Chief Wale Oladoja, who is the Mogaji, Akinsola compound in Oopo Labiran area of Ibadan, said, “We deliberated extensively on the recent attack on the palace exactly a week ago, the peace parley and the security implications of the invasion of the Oba’s palace among other issues.

“We are worried that a week after the incident and the governor’s insistence that he knew those who attacked the palace, the suspects have yet to be apprehended and brought to book. Yet they are talking of a peace parley. Could they be talking about peace if the Kabiyesi’s life had been terminated by gun-toting palace invaders?

“We align with the position of the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, that the governor should fish out the gunmen and make them to face prosecution. The police should also conclude their investigation on time and bring the suspects to justice. Anything short of this, we are ready to hold a mega rally and demand same from the authorities concerned.

“The Mogajis also reviewed the panel members of the truce committee and we have our reservations because many of them, especially the CCII and the Ibadan Elders Council, have compromised their positions and would be too biased in their judgment. So, we shall impress it on Kabiyesi and High Chief Ladoja to stay away from such an arrangement. We will welcome a situation whereby those mediating are the religious leaders of the three major faiths – Christianity, Islam and the traditionalists – and not people whose antecedents are well-known and are therefore predictable.

“The CCII and Ibadan Elders have already supported the reform to the 1959 Ibadan Chieftaincy Declaration and nobody is ready to listen to them. The CCII is a social group and they should stick to what they are known for and stop speaking for all Ibadan sons and daughters who are stoutly in support of the preservation of Ibadan culture heritage and norms.”

Oladoja added that the group had agreed that the cases in court, challenging the authority of the governor to install kings and crown them, should continue.

“The Mogajis agreed that the cases in court should be allowed to go on. The peace panel can only be composed of people with pedigree who have the fear of God at heart, most especially the adherents of the listed religious beliefs. Nothing untoward must happen to Oba Adetunji because we have cause to express worry about the ongoing tussle in the land,” he said.


http://punchng.com/no-peace-meeting-until-gunmen-are-produced-ibadan-mogajis/