The people of the Mahin community in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State have rejected the alleged illegal appointment of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa?s kinsman, Oyetayo Ofoaye, as the Alaboto of Aboto.

The Mahin leaders who opposed the appointment and choice of Ofoaye claim that the appointed monarch hails from the Ikohi descendants of Ugbonla and not from the Mahin kingdom.

The leaders of the Mahin community, in a statement signed by the Chairman of the Mahin Central Organisation, Pastor Oyekan Arije, maintained that no person from the Ikohi family of the Ugbo community has ever ruled or been associated with Aboto from time immemorial.

Arije explained that Aboto is a Mahin community subject to the Amapetu as the prescribed authority, saying no person from the Ikohi family has ever ruled Aboto or been associated with the Alaboto of Aboto chieftaincy.

He said, ?The people of Mahin Kingdom are not oblivious to the age-long desire of the present Governor of Ondo State to impose a person of his own Ugbo stock as Oba in the Mahin community of Aboto. Only the spirit of justice by the late Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu gave us a soothing but what has turned out now a temporary respite.

?In spite of our efforts during the just concluded governorship election where we delivered immeasurably, winning all Mahin 132 polling units, which is also the highest in content by any group among the Ilaje total of 312 units in the spirit of Ilaje unity, we are now being compensated with the generational shame of the desecration of our existential culture and tradition.

?For the avoidance of any doubt, the position of the people of Mahin is as follows: Aboto is a Mahin community established from time immemorial by people of Mahin origin and descent.

?Aboto is so significant to the people of Mahin, being the place where the Treaty of Friendship and Protection between Queen Victoria of England and the Amapetu of Mahin was signed on the 24th day of October 1885, which ceremony was hosted by the Amapetu?s appointed Baale of Aboto, Chief Idiogbe (Dogbe), who also was a signatory as a witness.

?Under its customary law, the ruler of Aboto shall be of Mahin origin and descent, appointed by the Amapetu of Mahin as Prescribed Authority, and in connection with which all the Baale and Oloja of Aboto from the inception of the town have consistently been appointed from the Idiogbe Family, who originally hailed from the Ikokogbe Quarters in Ode Mahin.?

?In accordance with the aforesaid customary law, Amapetu Oba Festus Ololajulo Isogun (1997-2003) and Amapetu Oba Lawrence Adetemi Omowole (2004-2017), in conjunction with the then Oloja of Aboto, Beniah Adeola Idiogbe, applied to the government that the Oloja of Aboto stool be upgraded as a recognised chieftaincy as Alaboto of Aboto.

?It is important to say that the Executive Council, while granting the request that the chieftaincy be recognised, noted that ?the Amapetu of Mahin (the Prescribed Authority) and the Ilaje Local Government Chieftaincy Committee had consented to the request for the recognition of the Alaboto of Aboto and upgrading to the status of an Oba,? as contained in the Executive Council File Reference CD4/24/40 12th Meeting of 2007 held on 21st March 2007.

?The declaration of the Alaboto as a Recognised Chieftaincy was duly finalised by the Akeredolu-led Executive Council at its meeting on the 15th day of August 2019 with the appointment of Oba Beniah Adeola Idiogbe as the Alaboto of Aboto in line with Customary Law and the Chiefs Law of Ondo State.

?The stool became vacant on the 4th day of January 2021 at the demise of His Royal Majesty, Oba Beniah Adeola Idiogbe, consequent upon which his daughter, Princess Olajiire Margaret Odusami-Idiogbe, was appointed on the 20th of January 2021 as the Regent in accordance with the Customary Law and has since assumed office and been recognised by all authorities.

?In the absence of a registered declaration, the age-long customary law of Aboto as part of the larger Mahin Kingdom is applicable to the chieftaincy, by which process the appointment of the new Alaboto was finalised with the traditional investiture of Prince Ololade Smart Idiogbe on the 12th of November 2024 by the accredited representatives of the Aboto Quarters as kingmakers, in which status he was presented to the Governor of Ondo State, His Excellency Honourable Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa, as one of the eminent personalities of Ilajeland on his campaign tour of Ilaje Local Government during the recent gubernatorial electioneering.

?The appointment of Prince Ololade Smart Idiogbe as the new Alaboto of Aboto is only subject to the approval of the Executive Council as provided under Section 47 of the Chiefs Law,? he said.

He, however, said, ?The history of the Ikohi family, of which Mr. Oyetayo Ofoaye claims descent, is well settled in Ilaje history and well recorded in archival records, including the Ilaje Intelligence Report, which describes Ikohi as the son of the Olugbo, whose descendants, upon crisis, left Ugbo and ran to Mahin, where they are now found at Aboto, Igbokoda, and Igboegunrin, which are predominantly Mahin communities.

?It is beyond doubt that Aboto is a Mahin community whose chieftaincy from inception and time immemorial is subject to the Prescribed Authority of the Amapetu. No person of the Ikohi family has ever ruled Aboto or been associated with the Alaboto of Aboto chieftaincy.

?The antics of some sections of the stranger Ikohi family to be part of the Alaboto chieftaincy through violence, false claims, and frivolous cases, including Suit No. H0K/55/2004; Suit AK/182/2019; and Suit No. AK/25/2021 against the State Government, the Amapetu of Mahin, and the Alaboto Family of Idiogbe, were either dismissed or abandoned in the face of the customary law of the Alaboto.

?It goes without saying that this unlawful imposition of persons from Ugbo on Mahin soil as traditional rulers by a governor of Ugbo extraction will have monumental implications for the chieftaincy architecture and peaceful coexistence in Ilaje land.

?There are several communities in Ugbo founded by or predominantly of persons of Mahin origin. They have never challenged the prescribed authority of the Olugbo. Even in new chieftaincy arrangements recognised in Ugboland since 2003, including the Olubo of Obe-Nla, Alagho of Odo-Nla, and Odoka of Obe-Ogbaro, no person not historically associated, not even members from the female lineage, is allowed to be incorporated into their chieftaincy arrangement,? he added.

He stated further that ?it cannot be overemphasised that it is beyond the authority and powers of government, not even in colonial times, to dictate the customary law. That is why the government only recognises and does not create a chieftaincy.

?In Mahin, the rites of ascension to the Alaboto stool, like other stools of Mahin origin, including recognised chieftaincies such as Igboegunrin, Igbokoda, and Atijere, are only complete at the Mahin ancestral shrine in Ode Mahin, into which persons not of Mahin origin, like an Ikohi, cannot have access.

?In 2007, after the declaration of the Alaboto as a recognised chieftaincy, the stranger Ikohi elements razed the palace of the then Oloja Beniah Idiogbe and displaced some other residents. The same they did during the burial of Kabiesi in 2021, where some people, including octogenarians, were killed.

?Some of the identified members of their criminal gangs arraigned and not really being prosecuted, are allowed to converge in Aboto, openly parading lethal weapons and even appointed security guards by contractors on government projects.

?By the illegal appointment of Oyetayo Ofoaye as the Alaboto, this government has now compensated, rewarded, or pacified the stranger and violent Ikohi with a Mahin crown, which is unacceptable to the people of Mahin of all generations.

?Our land and crown remain our inalienable and priceless heritage. We assure the government that we shall endure all pains, indignation, and deprivations, including executive arrogance and lawlessness, which are transient in the defence of the same,? he reiterated. (Nigerian Tribune)

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