From Ayodele Afolabi, Ado ekiti
The Araromi-Ekiti community in Ijero Local Government Area of Ekiti State, on Monday staged a peaceful protest at the Ekiti State House of Assembly premises over an alleged plot by the government to impose someone with an alleged tainted record as king.
Scores of members of the community who arrived at the premises of the assembly as early as 9 am with placards with various inscriptions, denounced the attempt to forcefully install a candidate with alleged criminal records on the community.
Some of the placards read: “BAO should not be a supporter of criminal, A criminal cannot be our king, Araromi is a town of honorable people, don’t impose certificate forger on Araromi, A certificate forger should be behind bars, not made a king, among others.”
Recall that the Araromi community had earlier fingered the Deputy, Monisola Afuye, the Commissioner for Chieftaincy Affairs, Olaiya Atibioke over an alleged plot to impose a king on the community.
However, addressing the protesters, a community leader, Olusola Aina said, “We are here to protest the government decision to impose a criminal on our community as a monarch and we are saying that we reject it totally. We are not saying that we won’t follow the due process of selection of an Oba. But when Ifa divination produces a criminal to be elected as an Oba, we say we reject it.
“This man Olatunde Babalola was said to be a product of University of Ibadan and further enquiry from the University showed that he didn’t attend the university. The proof will be handed over to you gentlemen of the press. At the end of the day he went to work at Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH) with a forged certificate from 2008 to 2013 as a Physiotherapist. Upon discovery that he didn’t posses the certificate, he absconded and disappeared into thin air only to appear and said he want to be a king.
“With his records, we don’t want a king that the police will be pursuing for certificate forgery. He forged the UI certificate, NYSC certificate; he forged the NMA Physiotherapist certificate. If the same government is rejecting civil servants that forged certificate, how would that government impose a certificate forger on the community for a life time?
When contacted on telephone, the preferred candidate, Prince Babatunde Adebomi denied the allegations describing those protesting as bad losers. He said that the Ifa divination that produced him was done in the presence of the kingmakers, the security Agencies and government representatives.
According to him, throughout the selection processes, nobody was asked to submit certificates as criteria for becoming the monarch of the community, wondering where the allegation of forged certificate came from.
He said the protesters were biased and trying to blackmail him because he was dully nominated by Ifa priest ahead of their candidates.
End.
