•Governor Aiyedatiwa
In a move to check incessant crisis that usually dogged selection and installation of traditional rulers, Ondo State Government has concluded plans to amend the existing chieftaincy declaration in the state.
This was disclosed by the state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Amidu Takuro today in Akure, the state capital, reports Daily Independent.
He also disclosed that the ministry has received 50 proposals and 70 petitions from different communities calling for the review of the existing chieftaincy declaration.
The commissioner announced that public hearings on the proposed amendment to the chieftaincy declaration would commence on Monday next week when government would to listen to the agitations of the petitioners.
However, he emphasised that only communities with monarchs would be allowed to amend their chieftaincy declaration.
Explaining further, Takuro said communities would determine the number of kingmakers, ruling houses, and regencies in case of the death of a monarch in the reviewed chieftaincy declaration.
He said the chieftaincy declaration would be peculiar to the law of each community that has approved stool by the government of the state.
He said: “It is expected that the people of the community led by the traditional ruler will bring their people together and other stakeholders that will determine their successors arrangements and kingmakers.
“As a ministry, we must do everything humanly possible to limit the level of numbers of litigations on chieftaincy matters in the state. In the past, we discovered that most of the declarations were being made in secrecy, and we don’t want that to continue. We want it in a way that every citizen of the community will have knowledge of what happens as regards their chieftaincy declaration.
“So, to us, we set up a committee that has been approved by the Governor that will help us as much as we can for us to have a perfect chieftaincy declaration in all the stools of the Ondo State.
“We want to assure the good people of Ondo State that the committee would do justice to all their requests, and we have received some petitions against some of the proposed drafts by some of the traditional rulers, and all these things will be looked into during the sitting of this committee.
“We have received over 50 proposals, while we have also received over 70 petitions on chieftaincy declaration in the state, which some people and the community said has to be reviewed.
Some of it is still in court, and we cannot do anything about it.
“We will not allow anybody to undermine their interest whatsoever on this chieftaincy declaration in the state. Every one of the stools has the right to come together within their community according to the chieftaincy law.
“But we will not allow any traditional ruler to impose his views or interests on other communities. All these things will be sorted out, and we have some mechanism being put in place to make sure that we resolve issues like this within a short period.”
