•How the staff of office presentation sparked violence

For several days last week, peace eluded the otherwise peaceful and agrarian community of Ganmo in Ifelodun local government area of Kwara State. It started as a fight between two people which otherwise should not have led to the mayhem that followed.

Sunday Mirror gathered that someone simply went to the palace of Oba (Alhaji) Abdullahi Kolawole, the Oluganna of Ganmo in Ifelodun council area of the state and attacked a member of the royal family he met there.

The action naturally should attract a reprisal but because it was pre-planned, some mob that had positioned itself on the other side of the road (a major highway that passes through Ganmo, dividing the town along the sides) trooped in and began a vicious mob action on the palace.

Sources said before anybody could ask what the matter was, the palace had been torched. Also burnt were other buildings in the neighbourhood belonging to the family members of the king’s family.

Prince Olawole Kolawole, son of the king who narrated the incident, said he had to hurriedly arrange for people to ferry the king out of the palace into safety.

Olawole said he was the one who reported the matter to the Divisional Police Officer (DPO). The prince said before he returned from the police station, his own personal house had also been torched. Within few hours, according to him, about three persons who were members of their family had been killed while several others were seriously injured. Among the injured, no fewer than four persons later died in the hospital.

Addressing a press conference few days later, the president of ‘Omo Ibile Igbomina’, a socio-cultural organisation of the Igbomina ethnic stock, found in the Ifelodun, Irepodun, and Isin local government areas of the state and who are the major Yoruba people in Kwara, Dr. (Chief) Samuel Atolagbe, said that last week’s attack on the Igbominas in Ganmo was the fourth in the last 11 years over the right of ownership to the town, a case that had been taken to courts for adjudication by the Afonja descendants of Idi Ape compound in Ilorin.

According to him, the unwarranted provocation was first unleashed on his people between July 10th to 12th, 2002; March 18th, 2008, after the victory of the Igbominas at the Court of Appeal. Another similar attack, he said, also came on November 16, 2010 “which was very surprising because it came on a Sallah day and then, this latest bloody one of Sunday March 17 and 18, 2013. Atolagbe said his people were being prevailed upon on each occasion not to fight back the way they ought to have done because of their belief in peace and the true process of justice.

But he warned that his peoples’ patience was almost at its tether’s end. A past president of Omo ibile Igbomina, Alhaji Toyin Adewara, in his contribution at the press conference, threatened that in the event that the Afonja descendants who should be their fellow Yoruba brothers would not hesitate to keep provoking the igbominas, they might not be able to hold back a possible reprisal attack in future. Adewara called on the government of Kwara State to urgently arrest the unpleasant situation.

Dr. Atolagbe had earlier at the press conference told journalists that a presentation of the staff of office to King Kolawole had earlier been scheduled for Saturday, March 16, but had to be put off by the government because of possible security reports of tension from their rivals in the Ganmo matter. He said surprisingly, the Igbominas who should be angry over the development kept their cool only to be provoked and attacked even after the ceremony had been shifted.

When the mayhem entered the third day last week, the state government through the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Isiaka Gold, announced the cancellation of the planned presentation of the staff of office to Oba Kolawole because of the wanton killing and destructions in Ganmo over the matter. Gold said Government would hold on until all matters surrounding the chieftaincy row is settled in court.

The Afonja Descendants, who are being alleged by the Igbominas as agents provateur, in their reaction to the disturbance, spoke on the platform of Ganmo Progressive Union through their president, Alhaji Yekini Opanle. To them, the governor of Kwara State had done well by cancelling the official presentation of the staff office to Oba Kolawole. The Union felt that “the prompt intervention of the governor minimizes the carnage and property destruction.

Opanle described the presentation of the staff of office to Oba Kolawole, if it had held, as an “illegal installation of Alhaji Abdullahi Kolawole, who is a Baale (native head)” as a 4th class Oba (royal father), as against security reports “that drew the attention of the government to the pending Supreme Court case”. He added that were it not for the action of the governor, “the Ganmo crisis would have taken a sharp turn for the worst. “Consequently, the amount of carnage and property destruction was reduced to the barest minimum,” he claimed.

The Afonja leader said, “The crisis that eventually erupted was the handiwork of the disgruntled elements and crestfallen celebrants whose illegal chieftaincy ambition was forestalled by Governor Ahmed’s timely intervention”. He accused the Ifelodun Local Government of “discriminatory, favourable treatment of the minority faction leader on the advice of Elese of Igbaja and Olupako of Share”.

He also alleged the local council of “giving salary inducement to Alhaji Abdullahi Kolawole, the minority faction leader of the chieftaincy dispute while starving the Oniganmo of Ganmo, who is the majority faction leader”. He demanded that the salary be stopped, being the only condition to enter into negotiation over the matter.

Former Governor Mohammed Lawal who was also a descendant of Afonja had protected his family fight by creating a “Maro Local Government Council” and made Ganmo the capital. However, the traditional Igbomina land was also extended to Olunlade, about two kilometers beyond Ganmo into Ilorin land. They also got a National Secretariat called ‘The Igbomina HOUSE’, jointly owned by the Igbomina in Kwara and Osun states.

The way it is at the moment, the decision of the Supreme Court on the Ganmo ownership matter between the Yoruba of Igbomina and Afonja of Ilorin extracts may be a problem that will never be resolved.

However, the serial communal crises between the two communities dates to history, it was gathered. The founder of Ganmo in Ifelodun Local Government area of Kwara State was an Igbomina man whose name was popularly known as ‘Ganna’ which means ‘wall’. He got this name because his hut at the time had a wall.

Ganna which was his name overtime became the name of his town and later got corrupted to be called ‘Ganmo’. When it was the time to have the village chief too, they chose the original name they were called to be the title of their chief with a prefix ‘Olu’. So, he became ‘Oluganna’ of Ganmo, i.e. the owner of Ganna. This was the findings of the Sunday Mirror in Ganmo, last week.

The matter has also been a subject of litigations in court, for many years. On the other hand, the Afonja descendants of Idi Ape compound in Ilorin whose ancient father was Laderin, a son of Afonja, who settled in Ganmo are also laying claim to the town. They have also been established in Ganmo for scores of years but still claim to be Ilorin people.

To them, Ganmo is just an outpost of Ilorin which can be interpreted to be their one-time farm settlement. The Afonja descendants have also put in place, their obaship (rulership) arrangement and given it the title of Oluganmo of Ganmo.

The argument of the Igbominas of Ganmo appeared to be convincing enough to the government which recently decided to grade the Oluganna and make him a fourth-class chief. Arrangement of formally presenting a staff of office to the Oba in this regard is said to be the immediate cause of the mayhem last week that claimed lives which unofficial accounts put at about 10, including those of two policemen while tens of people sustained serious injuries and properties worth millions of naira damaged.

Before now, Sunday Mirror was told that the matter of ‘who owns papa’s land’ had been in court and that the Igbominas had been favoured up to the Federal Court of Appeal. It is said that the matter is presently before the apex court of the land yet to be decided.