How Olukere of Ikere’s Hard Stance against Fayose, Eleka’s Candidature Landed Him in Prison

Oba Ganiyu Obasoyin. Olukere of Ikere

More facts are beginning to emerge on the reasons which made the Olukere of Ikere, Oba Ganiyu Obasoyin a remand inmate at the Ado-Ekiti medium security prison.

The monarch was picked up on Wednesday and arraigned over alleged murder.

Further dig however indicates that the unfortunate incident which happened at Olukere’s newly commissioned hotel was only used to further get at him over his continuous stand against anything Fayose.

There has been no love lost between Oba Ganiyu Obasoyin and Governor Ayodele Fayose since the inception of the governor in 2014. The traditional ruler was tagged as a henchman for the All Progressives Congress during the 2014 gubernatorial election and this culminated into a running battle with the PDP led government of Ayodele Fayose when he came in.

In the middle of the whole imbroglio was the contentious issue of recognizing Olukere of Ikere as the rightful king of Ikere Ekiti over the Ogoga of Ikere. This issue pitched Oba Ganiyu Obasoyin against Governor Ayodele Fayose in the wake of 2015. This actually led to confrontation between Fayose and Oba Ganiyu Obasoyin.

Another bone of contention between the governor and Olukere of Ikere was the dualisation of Ikere township road. The second phase of this project as initiated by the government of Ayodele Fayose had to pitch the governor and Oba Ganiyu Obasoyin against each other for the umpteenth time. The matter in this case was that, the dualisation will affect the shrines of some deities of Ikere situated at the city centre. Olukere, been the one in charge of spiritual matters of Ikere was alleged to have taken some money from the government for propitiation so that the shrines will give way for the dualisation project. It became tug of media war between the governor and Oba Ganiyu Obasoyin with accusations and counter accusations flying around in the middle of 2017.

The proverbial last straw that broke the camel’s back was Governor Ayo Fayose’s endorsement of his deputy, Professor Kolapo Olusola Eleka, an indigene of Ikere as his would-be successor. This has divided the town into various factions. The Pro-Eleka and Anti-Eleka groups. Oba Ganiyu Obasoyin was however been tagged as a leading force in the Anti-Eleka project. This according to sources prompted his pronouncement on the day he was commissioning his hotel that Ikere has no preferred candidate. The statement was said to have infuriated the Pro-Eleka group supported by the state government,a who thus organized themselves with dangerous weapons and attacked the newly commissioned hotel of Oba Ganiyu Obasoyin. Boys believed to be loyal to the Olukere of Ikere also did a counter attack on the Pro-Eleka group which led to the arrest of Oba Ganiyu Obasoyin.

The Media Assistant to Prince Dayo Adeyeye Campaign group, Ambassador Ademiloye Moses, however accused the state government of orchestrating the arrest of Oba Ganiyu Obasoyin. “Why will Governor Fayose link a murder case to Oba Ganiyu Obasoyin when he was not even at the point of the said attacks? This is only been done to coerce those who are not in support of Eleka’s candidature. The deputy governor is not loved in Ikere. Look at the day of the local government election, Ikere people trooped out to the market. Why can’t they even honour the deputy governor who is also a governorship hopeful to leave the market and proceed to voting points? It shows you that he is not an accepted candidate in Ikere” Ademiloye retorted

With the arraignment and subsequent remand of Oba Ganiyu Obasoyin, Ikere Ekiti may once again be on the precipice of political tussle as the Ekiti state police command assure the general public of safety.