Posted by By Francis Awowole-Browne (Abuja) on
The raging third term controversy weekend assumed a dangerous tone when the Head of the Yoruba community in Abuja, His Royal Highness, Oba Seyi Adediri Salawu, was beaten up in his palace on suspicion of being President Olusegun Obasanjo?s kinsman.
The raging third term controversy weekend assumed a dangerous tone when the Head of the Yoruba community in Abuja, His Royal Highness, Oba Seyi Adediri Salawu, was beaten up in his palace on suspicion of being President Olusegun Obasanjo?s kinsman.
In what members of the community described as a transfer of aggression on the Oba over the tenure elongation imbroglio, the irate mob who also live in the same Kado village where Oba Salawu?s palace is, were said to have told him to ask his brother (Obasanjo) to leave on expiration of his tenure.
To save his neck from the mob that camped in front of his palace and armed with dangerous weapons, the monarch, it was gathered, had to disguise himself by changing cloths and running out of the palace through the back door.
Oba Salawu, who narrated his ordeal to Sunday Sun said he would have been killed but for the assistance of one of his aides who drove him away from the palace having escaped by running inside the room to change his cloth.
He explained that trouble began when at about 8.P.M on Thursday, he heard his security guard arguing with some people who were demanding that he should call his master out. Not knowing what the motive of the visitors was, Oba Salawu came out of the house to inquire what the problem was.
?As I came out, I saw two men and was about to ask them what the problem was and before I could say a word, it was a heavy punch that I received from them. Then they started raining abuses and curses on me, calling me Obasanjo man, saying ?You (Oba) and Obasanjo, you will leave, we will force you leave with him.
You connived with el-Rufai to depose our chief, you and Obasanjo will go?.? Narrating the ordeal further, the Oba said: ?I thought it was over at that point, only for me to see that they have gathered more outside waiting for me. I quickly ran inside, changed my cloth and entered a car and then somebody drove me out in between them. They did not recognize me.?
Oba Salawu said he headed to the Life Camp police station and reported the matter, after which some policemen were dispatched to the area to restore sanity, adding that if he had not handled that matter with maturity, it would have degenerated to a bigger crisis.
The worried monarch lamented that he was at a loss as to why he could be made a subject of attack for what he knew nothing about, saying he is never a politician and has nothing to do with either third term or the deposition of the Garki chief, and has at all times sided with the people.
He noted with regret that the country is in the mess it has found itself, wondering how on earth, he has to be dealt with in that manner just because he is from Ogun State where President Obasanjo hails from. ?I have lived in the FCT for the past 16 years and I have tried to maintain peace in my domain since I was made the Oba of the Yorubas in Abuja in 1996.
This is the first time I am experiencing this kind of thing. I am an Ijebu man from Ijebu Igbo in Ogun State. I can?t deny it, but I should not be punished just because I am from the same state with the President whom you dislike,? said the distressed Oba. Oba Salawu said he has petitioned the SSS and the FCT police commissioner and the local government chairman over the development saying his life is in danger going by the threat of the mob to kill him.