Penultimate week, the people of Ode Ekiti, the headquarters of Gbonyin Local Government Area of Ekiti State, did the unprecedented when they dethroned their monarch and banished him from the town. What happened? Why was the king's 13-year rulership terminated? At the centre of the crisis was the monarch's alleged disregard for tradition on the ground that he was a born-again Christian

WHEN on Saturday, July 19, 2003, the Olode of Ode, Oba Samuel Adara Aderiye, a first class king in Ekiti State and the most prominent monarch in Gbonyin Local Government Area of the State, his town being the headquarters of that council, woke up, he must have thought it was the beginning of another auspicious day. Better still, he must have thought that since it was another day set aside for Semuregede, a festival marked annually by the people to pray for peace and prosperity of the town, as well as commence the eating of the new yam, the day would pass just like the previous ones - without any untoward incident.

He had spent 13 years on the throne and each of the celebrations of the Semuregede festival had passed the way he wanted, not the way the majority of the townspeople wanted. It was with this mind set that this monarch must have dressed this Saturday, putting on one of his best dresses, the beads dangling on his neck, the crown on his head and the shoes only fit for the royal for a festival which celebration was to continue in his courtyard at about 2.00 p.m.

The gathering storm

By the appointed time when the king emerged at the courtyard, virtually all the townspeople had gathered, having earlier danced round the town as part of the festival. In Ode, nobody jokes with Semuregede Festival as it is celebrated in honour of Oloke, a deity which all sons and daughters hold in high esteem. The belief in the town is that every indigene owes his protection to this deity which was said to have accompanied Ode's founders right from Ife where their ancestors hail from. For this reason, the festival is celebrated with pomp and pageantry with all sons and daughters of the town, even those outside the town, coming home to participate.

Now was the time to commence final lap of the 2003 edition of Semuregede Festival and the king must play a crucial role. Yet another actor who plays a crucial role at this stage of the festival is the Aworo Oloke of Ode, High Chief Sunday Oluborode. By virtue of his office as the chief priest of Oloke, the Aworo, in fact, presides over this stage of the festival. The high point of the festival at this stage is for the Aworo to offer prayers for peace, prosperity for the town and protection of the Oloke for indigenes for the next twelve months. In the course of doing this, the Aworo performs seven rites each of which must be endorsed by the Olode. The Aworo entered the courtyard soon after Oba Aderiye was seated and proceeded with the performance of the rites.

Monarch errs

Trouble began when the monarch endorsed only one of the rites and refused the rest. Although it was customary that the Olode must endorse all the rites, he must have reasoned within himself that if he violated this code in twelve previous editions of the festival and no serious consequences followed, he could as well violate this one and get away with it. And in fairness to Oba Aderiye, he had always told his townspeople that he was a good Christian to the extent of which he asked to be excused from fetish things such as could be found in rites similar to the ones that must be performed during Semuregede Festival. But the Aworo would have none of the king's 'homily' this time and told him pointedly so. The chief priest added that it was a taboo for the monarch not to endorse all the rites, and that if he ended up not endorsing them, it would mean another year of hard times for the people as peace, prosperity and protection would elude them. He did not also fail to remind the monarch that his refusal to endorse the rites was not the only area where he erred but also in his dressing for the occasion. The monarch ought to have wore a robe specially designed for the festival with a white feather clipped to his forehead.

But Oba Aderiye had chosen not to be attired this way for the festival since he mounted the throne. As the Olode stood his ground of not endorsing the rites, the Aworo stormed out of the courtyard. The festival was aborted, the townspeople stunned. But the drama was just unfolding. In a jiffy, the monarch ran from the courtyard into the storey building adjacent to the courtyard which served as his official residence and soon began to address the people from the balcony. He allegedly told the people who were still stunned about what had happened to leave where they stood rooted that he had no apology and that he would not be party to any rites in the town no matter its significance. At this point, some of the townspeople decided to call Oba Aderiye's bluff. They told him it was time for him to abdicate the throne and threatened that his stay a minute beyond that moment would attract the wrath of the entire townspeople. As this went on, militant members of the crowd got hold of cutlasses and began to cut down the trees within and around the palace to signify the 'death' of the monarch.

King flees palace

By the following morning, Sunday, July 20, Oba Aderiye had fled the palace with his entire household. But the people were not done with him yet. They still wanted to hear from him why he chose to trigger the chain of events that led to his dethronement. At dawn, the town crier was sent round the town to mobilise the people for a meeting scheduled for the market square while a search party went for the king. The search party had a hectic time finding the monarch as the team reportedly did not meet him in his personal house when it looked for him there. However, as the team was about departing for the market square to report back to the townspeople, Oba Aderiye was said to have been spotted hiding in his brother's house. He was immediately seized and taken before the townspeople at the market square.

A source told Sunday Vanguard that the monarch's seizure did not come until after both parties had engaged in some stone throwing session and the king overwhelmed by the search party. The smashed window panes of Aderiye's brother's house situated in Ilasa area of Ode was said have resulted from the stone throwing. The inquiry into the Olode's conduct allegedly commenced the moment he was brought before the townspeople with various allegations leveled against him, chief among which was his failure to partake in rites that would have seen Ode being at peace with itself for 13 years.

The inquiry

Whether out of fear or contempt for the people, Aderiye was said to have chosen not to address the gathering. He repeatedly asked the Oji-Iro, the most senior high chief and head of the town's kingmakers, Chief Abraham Adebayo, to help him beg the people and to impress it on them he was willing to change if he was given another opportunity. But Adebayo, who, as head of kingmakers, reportedly installed him as Olode in 1990, declined the request and asked him to address the people himself. The action of the high chief can be understood in the context of his disappointment in the last twelve years when he had had to tell the king to tread the path of his predecessors by doing what the people wanted only for Aderiye to reject his admonition.

The king banished

As this went on, the sound of the beating of drum was heard from a distance. The Olode, interpreting this to mean the imminent approach of some militant youths on a mission to kill him, fled the scene. Instinctively, the people began to chase him until he was pursued out of the town. The unprecedented had happened, the king had been dethroned, banished. Later that evening, the people converged at the market square to consider the fate of the monarch. The meeting which broke into groups asked if each group supported the dethronement and the suggestion that Aderiye should go into exile. The meeting was said to have been unanimous on the monarch's fate. To underscore the unanimity of the decision, one Chief Eyinfe, said to be representing the ruling house which presented Aderiye as king, allegedly spoke at the occasion, aligning the ruling house with the decision. To many indigenes of Ode, the dethronement marked the end of an era, an era which they alleged saw many untoward things happening including avoidable deaths of prominent indigenes like Professor Israel Ojo Adelola, a teacher of political science at University of Ado-Ekiti (UNAD); one Akinola, a retired airforce officer; Mr. Julius Aluko, a retired federal medical officer; Mr. Solo Oba, a senior nursing officer of Psychiatry and Mrs. Adesola, a retired headmistress. Scores of others were said to have died drowning in rivers and auto accidents, incidents the townspeople claimed never happened before the monarch ascended the throne because the king's predecessors performed the "right rites at the right time."

The indigenes hold Aderiye responsible for all the deaths and other unpleasant occurrences that befell the town while his reign lasted, since he failed to perform the traditional rites expected of him during major festivals on the ground that he could not compromise his Christianity and, by so doing failed to ward off evil forces from the town. Sunday Vanguard learnt that a reconciliatory move launched by Oba Ayodele Ige Olokesusi II, the Owa of Egbe, a neighbouring town, was aborted after Ode's high chiefs told him the townspeople's position on Aderiye's dethronement was final. And there is no other way to reinforce their position than the step they have already taken to intimate the constituted authorities - Ekiti State government - about approval to replace the deposed monarch. They wrote the state government last week to that effect.

Running battle

Ode people's battle with Aderiye did not begin with the disagreement over the celebration of this year's edition of Seremuregun Festival. It was a running battle that climaxed with the disagreement over the way the monarch conducted himself during the festival. Last week, the Alase, one of the high chiefs in Ode, Chief Segun Afun, told Sunday Vanguard that the people's problems with Aderiye started the moment he became king about 13 years ago. Afun claimed that the monarch showed his true colours as somebody who would not respect tradition when he refused to subject himself to installation rites. The Olode, according to him, boycotted the two most important aspects of the installation which required him to spend six months in two sacred groves: Odo-Ode and Erepupu. In respect of the Erepupu rites, the monarch was said to have excused himself on the ground that he had a dream that some people had planned to waylay and attack him.

Benefit of doubt

This notwithstanding, the king makers were said to have prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt that he would live up to the people's expectations. But the turn of events soon turned their optimism to pessimism.

The Alase explained that Aderiye, rather than cooperating with Ode chiefs to ensure that all relevant traditional festivals were celebrated and the gods appeased to ensure that things run normally in the town, the Olode claimed he was the modern king, a religious one, who would have nothing to do with the festivals. He listed the gods that must be appeased in the town on annual basis to include the Oloke (during the Semuregede Festival), Orete (small stream which appeasement is believed will prosper the people), Orisa Odo-Ode, Iyemeji, Esin Omo (god that protects children against small pox and other deadly diseases) and Ogun (god of iron). Also celebrated yearly is Odun Ibode by Ifa priests.

The monarch was expected to feature prominently anytime the Odun Ibode festival was being celebrated. Afun stated that Aderiye was a member of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion in the town but faulted his abstinence from participating in the rites during traditional festivals in the town on the ground of his allegation that for each of the festivals, the local government was making available an allocation which he alleged the monarch was collecting. If religion forbids you from carrying out traditional rites, why then would you collect money for the purchase of items for the rites?, the high chief asked.

Sacred items destroyed

In addition to this, the Olode allegedly collected all the sacred items in the palace and destroyed them. Of particular mention was a sacred object said to have been installed in the palace to stop premeditated murder in 1933 when a man in Ode slaughtered his wife. Soon after that object was destroyed, a similar incident was said to have been recorded in the town. All kinds of deaths that ordinarily should be averted had necessary rites been performed by the monarch also became the order of the day. Among the killings, it was alleged, was that of a two week old baby said to have been taken to a stream by his mother who slaughtered him.

Alase alleged that Aderiye was unmoved by the situation as every visit to him "to do the right thing" was always met with insults and abuses. A story was told of how the monarch insulted a group of old women who visited him to order that a rite be performed after drowning of indigenes in Ose River became rampant. The Olode allegedly told them that he had no time to listen to a bunch of prostitutes who had nothing to do but gossip all over town. On another occasion, when a group of youths were said to have visited him to show their concern over the frequency of deaths in the town, he was quoted as having asked them if anybody thought he was the person killing the deceased persons.

Aderiye allegedly told them they were mistaken if they thought he would perform any rite to stem the tide and that he was prepared to continue to rule even if deaths depleted the population until only two persons were left.

University teacher dies

At yet another time when some youths under the aegis of Okoro visited him after six of them had died within two months and Professor Adelola had taken ill, the Olode allegedly used uncharitable words to describe the deceased university teacher. He was alleged to have described the don as 'adara nita madara nile' meaning Adelola was useful outside but useless at home. Yet the don was credited as having been instrumental to the admission of many Ode indigenes at UNAD. An indigene told Sunday Vanguard that nobody was surprised that Aderiye allegedly uttered such an uncomplimentary remark about Adelola as he claimed there was no love lost between them. Adelola was said to have consistently opposed the style of rulership of the Olode for which the monarch was alleged to have told the don at a meeting last year that he would not live to witness this year's edition of Ode-Day.

Sunday Vanguard learnt that the last days of Aderiye as Olode actually began with the Adelola saga. When the don died, the youths were said to have met the Olode, hoping they could still persuade him to handle the situation properly in the interest of the town.

An undertaking was reportedly extracted from him to the effect that he would prevent further avoidable deaths in the town. But rather than keeping to his own side of this agreement, the Olode, it was learnt, wrote the police, alleging the youths were threatening his life. It was the same Olode who wrote the police to withdraw his complaint following which he held a truce parley with the youths. That was the situation before penultimate week's Semuregede Festival which climaxed in his dethronement, the spokesperson of youths in the community, Abiodun Ojo, alias Akika, told Sunday Vanguard.

Allegations

Other allegations against the dethroned Olode include his not being friendly with any of Ode chiefs, keeping to himself information relating to emoluments collected on their behalf from the local government, single handedly appointing honorary chiefs for the community and being generally indifferent to the development of the community. The Alase appeared to have several facts to back up the allegations. But the one he could not explain satisfactorily was that which had it that the monarch was indifferent to the development of Ode. Afun agreed that if the meaning of development could be understood within a reasonable context, and facilities like pipe borne water and electricity were attracted to the town while the Local Government (Gbonyin) which has its headquarters in the town was carved out of Emure/Ise/Orun council during the monarch's tenure, then Aderiye attracted some development to Ode.

The Aluko connection

Prominent indigenes of Ode include the late Chief GBA Ainyede, Professor Sam Aluko and his son who served in the immediate past Senate. Asked if these indigenes did nothing to intervene in the crisis before it got to a head, the Alasa of Ode said Akinyede could not have intervened because Aderiye saw the first republic politician as a sworn enemy until he died because he (Akinyede) supported a rival candidate (one Dr. Akilo) when the Olode was to be installed.

Incidentally, Akilo was said to have shown little or no interest in the Olode stool based on his conviction that his religious disposition would not make him a good monarch because he would not be able to perform the rites required of his office. Afun disclosed that Professor Aluko is Aderiye's cousin, saying that if Aderiye was stubborn, as many had been alleging, the professor would have been unable to do anything.

Aderiye's whereabouts

All efforts to get the monarch to react to his deposition proved abortive. There were conflicting information about his whereabouts. While some said he was being sheltered in Egbe whose monarch unsuccessfully tried to restore him back to office, others stated that he was taking refuge in Agbado, another neighbouring town. Yet another claim had it that he headed for Lagos the moment he fled Ode.

Mum was the word when Sunday Vanguard visited his personal house situated in Ilase area of Ode. A woman identified as the exiled king's sister claimed she did not know her brother's whereabouts. She spoke of one Ronke, Aderiye's daughter, who she said was in the position to know the monarch's movement. A visit to Gbonyin Local Government Primary Health Centre in Agbado where the daughter works showed she had not been at work for several days.

Sighted on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

However, a source, which corroborated the claim that the Olode may be in Lagos, said a green Mercedes Benz 200 marked OLODE was spotted on Lagos - Ibadan expressway at about 12.30 p.m. last Wednesday heading in Lagos' direction. According to the source, a man in royal attire sat at the back seat of the car while a lady, who appeared sleeping, sat with the driver.