Ibadan candidates gunning for the vacated stool of Onikoyi of Ikoyi-Ile, in Oyo State, have gone spiritual, a palace source told Vanguard, yesterday.
Also, the nomination of candidates to the exalted stool by the four ruling houses ends tomorrow.
The ruling houses are Adegun, Adesite, Ashamu-Ladipo and Ojo Atoyebi.
Vanguard reliably gathered that many bonafide sons of the ancient town, home and abroad, have signified interest to contest the stool.
A reliable palace source said the administrative process had since commenced, after the transition of the late Onikoyi, Oba Abdulyekeen Ayinla Oladipupo III, to the great beyond.
The late Onikoyi joined his ancestors on Friday, April 8, after a protracted illness. He was chairman, Traditional Council, Oriire Local Government of Ogbomoso zone. He succeeded Oba Bello Ayinla Adesite II.
Investigations by our correspondent, however, revealed that the candidates have gone spiritual to succeed the late Oladipupo and mount the stool of their forefathers.
The palace source said: “It’s a sensitive thing. It’s almost like politics and the candidates need to be extremely careful when in a contest like this. I can tell you authoritatively that many of the candidates have gone spiritual because it requires prayers.
“Although we have our customs and tradition, and we have some written documents that can guide us, so I don’t want to talk much until the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs give directive through the Local Government to the kingmakers.”
When pressurised to lay more emphasis on spiritual prayers the candidates embarked on, the palace source said: “Are you not a Yoruba man? If you are a Muslim, you need to seek Allah’s intervention in whatever you are doing or you wanted to do and if you are a Christian, you must do the same because the royal stool is not a councillorship or chairmanship position. Even the chairman and councillor have gone spiritual. You should understand me better.
“The people of Ikoyi are praying. They are praying generally because they don’t want to be delayed. They don’t want it to be dragged so that other issues will not come up because we are going into the era of politics. We don’t want our culture and tradition to be influenced by politics. We want to quickly solve this and move on but we need to be patient so that we don’t break the protocol.”
On the number of candidates who have shown interest so far, the source said: “I won’t be able to tell you that now until when the accreditation closes which is likely to be Tuesday. We will now tell you that at the expiration, this is the number that we have. I won’t be able to say anything on that now.”
Meanwhile, the late monarch came from Ashamu- Ladipo ruling house while the next king is expected to come from Ojo Atoyebi ruling house.
