A civil rights organisation, under the aegis of Coalition of Public Interest Lawyers and Advocates (COPA),\u00a0has faulted the suspension of the Oluwo of Iwo Land, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi by the Osun State Council of Traditional Rulers (OSCTR), describing it as \u201cweightless and unknown to any law in Nigeria.\u201d
\nThe coalition likened the\u00a0scenario\u00a0to the suspension of a\u00a0governor by the\u00a0Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF)\u00a0\u201cwhich has the implication of staying his rights and privileges as it relates to the\u00a0NGF and not as it relates to his power, rights and duties as governor of his state.\u201d
\nThe\u00a0organisation\u00a0said\u00a0that since\u00a0the ground for the suspension\u00a0was on his alleged conflict with the Ooni of Ife, Alaafin of Oyo, Alake of Egba Land, amongst others,\u00a0\u201cthis\u00a0goes to show that the said decision is borne out of class struggle.\u201d
\n\u201cTherefore Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi, the Oluwo of Iwo remains the King while the announced suspension in\u00a0our humble opinion is a mere media advocacy against the monarch. I expect the Oluwo of Iwo to endeavour to build bridges with his colleagues now\u201d, COPA stressed.
\nThe convener of COPA, Pelumi Olajengbesi, in a statement\u00a0issued in Abuja\u00a0on Saturday\u00a0said OSCTR \u201ccannot lawfully exercise a power it does not have.\u201d
\nHe\u00a0however\u00a0explained that the position\u00a0was not in anyway an endorsement of the probity or otherwise of the allegations levelled against the Royal Father.
\nAccording to him,\u00a0while\u00a0it\u00a0could\u00a0be set down for argument that the\u00a0OSCTR\u00a0 could,\u00a0in their rights,\u00a0suspend a\u00a0King\u00a0from participating in their council meetings or activities, that must not be construed to import that the traditional authority over a King’s subjects\u00a0could\u00a0be eroded by such council as publicly reported in the\u00a0media.
\n\u201cThis is in view of the fact that the procedure for ascension and removal from the throne is governed by the rule of law which does not empower the council to enthrone, dethrone or suspend any traditional ruler\u201d, Olajengbesi\u00a0stated.
\nHe said, \u201cSince it is not within the exclusive or implied powers or discretion of the traditional rulers in council to appoint a traditional ruler, it can therefore not be within their powers to suspend any traditional ruler.
\n\u201cIt is my considered opinion that the suspension of a monarch by any traditional council is weightless and unknown to any law in Nigeria…
\n“It is a given that issues of royal institutions must be handled with utmost decorum and decency. In every town or land, more particularly in Yoruba Land, a monarch can only be appointed and removed in line with the strict laws of the respective States.
\n\u201cThe Oluwo of Iwo is first a paramount ruler of the Iwo\u00a0Land, and hence cannot be suspended from the throne by any group of traditional rulers acting in concert or by any other community save by the State\u00a0government\u00a0acting in compliance with the laid down procedure for his removal as enshrined in the State Law.
\n\u201cIt must be well noted that the membership of the Oba Oluwo of Iwo in the Osun State traditional council did not emanate from the council purporting to suspend him but stems from the fact of his being the Oluwo of Iwo Land and as such the Council cannot divest or put in abeyance membership of a Council they did not confer on him.
\n\u201cAny traditional ruler can disagree with another traditional ruler no matter how well placed such a ruler is when it comes to issues of protecting their heritage, stools, history and values of their land, and it behoves the\u00a0government to intervene and help resolve such differences.
\n\u201cSome of these traditional rulers have dispute deeply rooted in their history and even when they live together peacefully with the coming of civilisation, the history cannot be taken away.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A civil rights organisation, under the aegis of Coalition of Public Interest Lawyers and Advocates (COPA),\u00a0has faulted the suspension of the Oluwo of Iwo Land, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi by the Osun State Council of Traditional Rulers (OSCTR), describing it as \u201cweightless and unknown to any law in Nigeria.\u201d The coalition likened the\u00a0scenario\u00a0to the suspension of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":24744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1090,24,1091],"class_list":["post-24772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-iwo","tag-suspension","tag-weightless"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}