Ikere Community Proscribes ‘Olukere’ Title Over Abuse Of Office
Traditional chiefs in Ikere Kingdom on Wednesday, abrogated the traditional title of Olukere as a traditional institution in the ancient town over abuse of office.
The Ogoga in Council, under the leadership of Oba Adu Adejimi Alagbado, the Ogoga of Ikere Ekiti, proscribed the title of Olukere, being held until Wednesday (yesterday) by Ganiyu Obasoyin following alleged abuse of the position by its last occupant.
A magistrate court sitting in Ado Ekiti, the state capital, had last week, ordered the remand of Obasoyin in prison custody after his arrest late December, 2017, over his alleged complicity in the murder of one Femi Kolade in a Christmas day reprisal attack.
The deceased’s younger brother, Ajibola Kolade, denied the rumour in a chat with journalists in Ado Ekiti yesterday that his late brother, a graduate of Ekiti State University, was an armed robbery suspect, saying that his younger brother was a graduate of Ekiti State University.
“My elder brother was a toilet attendant at the popular Fayose market along Ikere Road in Ado Ekiti. His alias name there was ‘kofem’ and everyone there knows him. He was also into laundry business. He later took to poultry business. He was never an armed robber. He wasn’t even at the scene where the attack on the Olukere hotel was carried out. He was just a gentleman who unfortunately, was at the scene of the reprisal attack when it was carried out.
“They said my deceased brother even begged on behalf of those who had offended the Olukere, but he didn’t want to pardon and allegedly ordered his boys to attack the men, leading to the killing of my brother. My brother has been my benefactor and never hurt a fly in his life time,” he said.
The Secretary to the Ogoga in Council, Chief James Alonge , the Odofin of Ikere Ekiti, who read the Ogoga’s proscription address to newsmen at the palace yesterday, said that Olukere was never a title in Ikere land.
He recalled that the identity recognised for Obasoyin had been the Oloje, a masquerade chieftaincy title given by Ogoga to a chief who serves as chief priest with the responsibility to appease one of the Ikere deities, Olosunta.
