Gov Ajimobi of Oyo State

Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan

The Oyo State Government has revealed plan to increase the membership of the panel to set up to review the 1957 declaration of  Olubadan of Ibadanland from seven to 11.

This is coming barely a week after two members of Olubadan-in-Council, Otun and Osi Olubadan, High Chief Lekan Balogun and High Chief Rashidi Ladoja instituted a lawsuit against the operation of the Seven Member Judicial Commission of Inquiry inaugurated and saddled with the responsibility of tinkering with the 1975 declaration of Olubadan.

According to a statement signed by the Oyo State Commissioner for Information and Culture, Toye Arulogun, the State Government explained that the membership expansion was necessitated by the need to accommodate more concerned stakeholders in Ibadanland and the inclusion of additional views of more interested parties on the Olubadan chieftaincy issues in line with the state government’s Ajumose philosophy.

Oyo Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Mr. Bimbo Kolade, who stated this at the weekend, noted that the views being posited by concerned individuals have increased the tasks of the panel members which necessitated the inevitable increase to accommodate a wider perspective in order to ensure a thorough job by the panel.

Kolade said that the State Governor, Sen. Abiola Ajimobi had at different fora stated that the review of the declaration was not targeted at any individual but to facilitate the development, modernisation and dynamism in the traditional chieftaincy system in Ibadanland and the state in general.

He stated that Governor Ajimobi is committed to the review in transparent manner as part of his modernisation efforts in Oyo State, noting that the existing members of the panel as well as those to join them are individuals with integrity who will do justice to the review without fear, favour or sentiments.

Kolade added that the new members of the panel would be inaugurated next week in order to keep tabs of the activities of their colleagues earlier sworn in, assuring that there would be no government interference in the review panel’s activities.

It would be recalled that Governor Ajimobi had on Friday, May 19, inaugurated a seven-man judicial commission of inquiry headed by a retired High Court judge, Justice Akintunde Boade to review the Olubadan chieftaincy declaration and other related chieftaincies in Ibadanland.