Ogun Monarch Arrested Over Contempt, Granted Bail

The police at Eleweran, Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital, Southwest Nigeria, have arrested a traditional ruler in Obada Oko in Ewekoro Local Government Area of the state for allegedly parading himself as an Oba after the court had restrained him from the act.

The traditional ruler, Chief Mufutau Shofidiya was said to have been ordered by Justice O.Olapade of an Abeokuta State High Court, since 20 January, 2011, to stop parading himself as an Oba pending the determination of the suit which he defied.

In the suit no AB/202/2010 was jointly filed by Chief Sikiru Oladunjoye, Abiodun Okuboyejo and Lukmon Oyedele, on behalf of Omotayo, Gbadamosi and Oyedele, the descendants of Sangodina Koole who founded Obada-Oko community.

The appellants, who described Oba Shofidiya as a tenant in the community, accused the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo of wrongful installation of Shofidiya as an oba in the community.

Shofidiya was arrested this afternoon by men of the State Police Command at his house in Obada-Oko and was whisked away to Eleweran, the state Police Command Headquarters.

Our correspondent gathered that the arrested Oba refused to comply with the injunction as he was said to have been going about in various designer Obaship regalia and paraphernalia as well as attending to communal cases in that capacity.

It was also learnt that the second and third defendants, the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo and Olu of Itori, Oba Fatai Akamo jointly favoured the installation of Shofidiya following the political lineage of the first claimant, Sikiru Oladunjoye as a Baale (a village head), allegedly refused to support former Governor Gbenga Daniel’s Peoples’ Party of Nigeria (PPN) by opting for the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN,).

The arrest of Shofidiya was said to have been further hastened following his decision to inscribe on his SUV the title of Olu of Obada-Oko, Ilufemiloye 1, as well as erecting a big signboard with his photographs while holding a staff and horse tail at the entrance of the town.

A senior police oficer who preferred anonymity confirmed to our correspondent this evening that the man was arrested but had since been granted bail.

“The Oba has been released. He told us that he did not know that the court had asked him not to parade himself as Oba,” the police officer said.

By Abiodun Onafuye/Abeokuta