Posted by By WOLE ADEDEJI, Ilorin on
An uneasy calm now pervades Ilorin royal circle following the petition to the presidency by Ilorin High Chiefs, alleging financial improprieties against the Emir, Alhaji Sulu Ibrahim Gambari.
An uneasy calm now pervades Ilorin royal circle following the petition to the presidency by Ilorin High Chiefs, alleging financial improprieties against the Emir, Alhaji Sulu Ibrahim Gambari.
The High Chiefs, who form the traditional kingmakers, had petitioned President Olusegun Obasanjo in which they accused the Emir of withholding their upkeep allowances since June last year, even when officially, the money had been released to him (the Emir) by the appropriate authorities.
About seven years ago, when the trouble started, the kingmakers at the time, six in all, had cried out that the Emir, who by the law of the then Head of State, General Sanni Abacha, was drawing five per cent from each of the five Local Governments that made up the Ilorin Emirate, was not paying them their dues from the money.
At a time, the Emir was accused of having collected N45 million and the matter had created a gulf between the monarch and his titled chiefs. The matter was made worse in the four years of former Governor Mohammed Lawal as the issue was politicised.
In the fresh petition to the President, the chiefs alleged that the Emir, at the time of their fresh complaint, had collected the N72 million meant for the upkeep of Emirate Council members but was never disbursed.
According to them, "without recourse to the laid down procedures, in calling for a council meeting, where deliberation would be made on how the funds should be expended, the Emir singularly spent N10 million in a fixed account with the Bank of the North and Union Branch, while he kept the rest to himself."
The kingmakers further accused the Emir of refusing to appoint replacements for those of them who had died between 1996 and now.
This, they said, was "a contradiction of the tradition of Ilorin that requires replacement for any dead chief within 40 days."
At the Baba Isale's palace, Daily Sun was not allowed in on the grounds that he was out of town but a man who volunteered to speak said the tension had increased within the past one week.
Copies of the petitions were sent to the Senate, the House of Representatives the President, Special Adviser on Traditional Matters, Kwara State Governor, Kwara House of Assembly, Justice Mustapha Akanbi, Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, Kwara State, retired justice Saidu Kawu and Dr Olusola Saraki, (father of the governor).