Date Published: 11/15/09

Sir,

Deji of Akure: The fall of a monarch

With all the charges leveled against the dethroned the Deji of Akure, Oba Adesina Adepoju, some of my  Ondo friends told me that they were not surprised, saying the man’s cup was full.

According to the report in the Guardian November 9, 2009, the charges which were made against the Deji by the 38 High Chiefs which included 17-member traditional council of kingmakers led by Chief Folorunsho David , the Olisa and the Prime Minister of the town, it was stated that the Oba through his actions on throne “brought disgrace, dishonor and impudence to the office of the Deji”.

The charges included extortion of money from land owners, harassment of market women, spending funds of the Palace according to his own dictates, travelling out of his domain without informing the right authorities, and scaring aware of genuine investors from Akure land; those investors now found succor in other towns to drive their economic activities.

One was surprised to read some time recently Deji’s donation of school books worth millions of Naira to the oil-rich Akwa Ibom State government. Many saw this as abnormal. While his State is wallowing in the need for such donations, he went (to) far away Akwa Ibom, to demonstrate what?

What has befallen him should serve as a notice to those traditional rulers in Nigeria who think that their subjects could be ruled with high-handedness and other bad habits bothering on corruption. It is not only the State government that can cause dethronement of a Traditional ruler; the kingmakers can as well, just as in this case. Nevertheless, the State government has started intervening

Chief Kenneth Holmes,

234 Okigwe Road

OWERRI, Imo State holmeskenneth92@yahoo.com