The Ekiti State Government has given the kingmakers in Ipao-Ekiti in Ikole Local Government Area of the state a 14-day ultimatum to fill the royal stool of Obanla, which had been vacant for four years.
The state Deputy Governor, Chief Bisi Egbeyemi, gave the ultimatum at a meeting with the kingmakers in his office on Wednesday in Ado-Ekiti.
Egbeyemi expressed dismay that the town had been without a traditional ruler since 2016.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the immediate past monarch, Oba Joseph Aina, who ascended the throne in 1962, joined his ancestors in 2016, after a 54-year reign.
The deputy governor said government would abide by the 1982 Ipao-Ekiti Chieftaincy gazette, stipulating that it was the turn of the Adesogan ruling house to produce the next monarch.
According to him, the development and progress of any town without a traditional ruler will be adversely affected, hence the need to fill the stool as early as possible.
Egbeyemi said the Dr. Kayode Fayemi-led administration was desirous of promptly filling vacant stools to ensure smooth running of communities and the need to give them direction at all times.
He explained that the four surviving kingmakers formed a quorum to select a new king for the community, urging them to perform the function with utmost sense of integrity and fear of God.
The deputy governor, however, warned that government might be compelled to appoint warrant chiefs to select a new monarch, if the kingmakers failed to perform their duties within the time allowed by law.
He said: “The four available kingmakers have formed a quorum to choose the new Obanla for the town, and there is no reason for further delay after four years without a king.
“We can’t deviate from what is in the gazette produced in 1982.
“We are giving you 14 days to let us know the Obanla-elect.”
Egbeyemi, who said government had no interest in who emerges as the next Obanla, urged the kingmakers to carry the local government and the Bureau of Chieftaincy Affairs along in the selection process.
He said government would ensure that due process was followed in the selection of the new Obanla, in line with the Chiefs Law and the tradition of the community.
The kingmakers, who spoke one after the other, promised to carry out the assignment with utmost sense of responsibility and within the stipulated time.
NAN reports that the two other ruling houses are Angbesi Arojojoye and Ogungbuyi.
Follow The Eagle Online Channel on WhatsApp
