BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
The Chieftaincy Affairs Review Committee set up by the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke to scrutinize and assess actions taken by the immediate past administration in the state as regards enthronement of traditional rulers, on Tuesday, submitted its complete report to the state governor.
Receiving the detailed report in Osogbo, Governor Adeleke commended the committee for the task and assured that his administration would study the report and the recommendations, promising that no one would be witch-hunted.
Recall that crises had engulfed some affected towns following alleged imposition of monarchs by the immediate past administration.
The governor said rule of law and due process would be applied in settling controversies surrounding the selection and approvals of traditional rulers during the immediate past administration.
Addressing the committee, Adeleke said, “you have done a good job looking at the detailed report that you have submitted to me. I will take my time, with my team, to look at it and I am sure that we will put all the recommendations into use.
“I want to congratulate you and your team for doing this. We will rule with fear of God. We are not here to witch-hunt anybody. We will make sure that we have rule of law and due process,” the governor added.
Addressing journalists after submitting the report, the Chairman of the Committee, Bunmi Jenyo, disclosed that over 1,000 petitions were received from aggrieved individuals, saying that over 200 persons including kingmakers, were interviewed.
Jenyo said, “You can be rest assured that a committee under my leadership have done justice to the chieftaincy tussle within Osun State especially with the terms of reference Chieftaincy and installation of kings between July 17 till November 26th.
“We investigated, we attended to petitions and looked at it critically because we believe in equity and we are being fair to all that was involved.
“We have over 1000 petitions on chieftaincy matters in Osun, we have over 200 interviews with individuals including the kingmakers of all affected communities especially in Igbajo in Boluwaduro Local Government Area, Iree in Boripe and Ikirun in Ifelodun Local Government Areas. These are three volatile towns that were badly affected during the crisis. We looked at critical issues and we advised the government on what to do and how to do it in a legal way. We are not being sentimental nor attended to issues with prejudice. We are just and God fearing.”
On why the committee spent give spent five weeks instead of the initial three weeks period given by the governor, Jenyo said his committee was the first to submit report out of all the committees constituted, adding that the period was extended because of some rigours it faced during sittings.
“Some individuals that were invited did not turn up and also up till now they did not. We were given three weeks to submit report and we are the first to finish among the committees that were inaugurated. In the course of our assignment, we revisited a memo of Bola Ige of 1983 from the archives,” he stated.
