Obasanjo, Shonekan, Others End 20-yr-old Egba Chiefs’ Crisis

The age long crisis rocking the four areas of Egba nation was over the weekend resolved amicably through the efforts of the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo and the former Head of Interim Government, Chief Ernest Sonekan.

The crisis which had been on for more than two decades was amicably settled with all the four sections of the kingdom recognizing Oba Adedotun Gbadebo as the paramount ruler of Egbaland.

It could be recalled that the four Monarchs: Osile of Oke-Ona, Oba Adedapo Tejuoso, Gbagura of Agura, Oba Halidu Laloko and Olowu of Owu, Oba Adegboyega Dosumu had over two decades been insisting that they have equal status with the Alake.

The situation had resulted in litigation and bad blood between the occupants of the Alake stool and the three kings and all efforts by prominent personalities to resolve it had failed. The bad blood between the kings got to a stage when the three monarchs were not on talking terms with the Alake.

But at a brief ceremony at the Isale-Igbehin, Abeokuta Government House over the weekend, the four kings told journalists that all was over. “We have all resolved to bury our individual differences in the interest of Egba unity and progress”, Gbadebo said in a communiqué, signed by Tejuoso, Laloko and Dosumu.

Present at the ceremony were Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Former Head of Interim Government, Chief Earnest Sonekan, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria,? Mr. Tunde Lemo, Chief Tunde Abudu, a prominent industrialists and? Dr. Femi Majekodunmi, a renowned medical practitioner who are all prominent sons of Egbaland.