Baales in Ogun State have voiced their grievances, over the receipt of #16m being released by His Excellency for their monthly stipends despite regular releases by Governor Abiodun.


Frustration has been mounting among these leaders as they claim that while the governor has been making timely payments, most of them are not receiving their rightful entitlements.

There are four traditional councils in the state- Egba Tradition Council, Yewa Tradition Council, Ijebu Tradition Council and Remo Traditional Council.

Narrating their ordeal, while speaking to journalists in Abeokuta, the state capital yesterday, President of The Ogun State Councils of Baales, Tunji Falola, debunked rumor that Governor Dapo Abiodun has not been paying the 1,600 registered Baales in the state as promised.

He recalled that the governor began the release of N16 million monthly stipend for all the registered Baales in the four traditional areas of the State in February 2023 after their council had appealed for it.

Making further revelation, the President disclosed that the Remo Traditional Council started paying its Baales #15000 per baale per quarter upon receiving the first grant from the Ogun State government. Yewa and Ijebu paid a few selected baales for two months. The story is not different in Egba.

Falola lamented that the baales later discovered that the state government had been releasing their monthly stipends regularly up till the month of October 2023.
His words “in February this year, the Ministry of Local
Government and Chieftaincy Affairs confirmed the release of N16 million for our stipends. He believed this was a special grant by the state government outside the statutory monthly allocation to the traditional sector.
He said several appeals had been made in terms of correspondence to the governor about the plight of baales.





My name is Baale Tunji Falola, the Baale of Oke-Yidi Lantoro Abeokuta. I'm the Chairman of all Baales in Abeokuta South Local Goernment area and the President of all Baales in Ogun state.Since the creation of the state in 1976, Governor Abiodun happens to be the most friendly Governor to Baales in Ogun state. He was the first sitting governor to attend our annual Oko-Ilu Day celebration and sponsored it. He was the first Governor to consider Baales for regular monthly stipends and promised us a secretariat accommodation. Sincerely, Prince Dapo Abiodun, CON, is the apple of Baales' eyes.

Then came December 15 last year, we had our oko’ilu day. It is a congress of all Baales in Ogun state. In my opening address at that occasion, we requested four things from the state government.

One, we asked the governor to sponsor that occasion which he did instantly. We pleaded for vehicles, monthly stipends and a secretariat accommodation to enhance the administrative continuity of the association of Baales.

“””We jubilated over the Governor's responses at the occasion.
The traditional rulers are fathers to Baales. They appoint baales and give us the impetus to exist. Rather than saddle them with the responsibility of collating a statistical data for baales, we commenced the registration of baales in 2020 using only one criterion : presentation of a certificate of appointment issued by a prescribed authourity, an Oba. This has resulted in several "unknown" baales rushing to their Obas to legitimise their appointments. As at today, there are 784 registered Baales, in Egba, 315 in Ijebu, 468 in Yewa, and 149 in Remo.
We appeal to our traditional rulers and the State government to save our souls.