The Head of the Oyo Mesi and Regent, High Chief Yusuf Akinade Ayoola , has called on both the Nigeria’s Minister of Information , Alhaji Lai Mohammed and the United Nations Educational and Social Cultural Organization (UNESCO) not to accept and endorse the candidature of Sangowale Ibuowo, as the new Elegun Sango in Oyo Alaafin.
High Chief Ayoola who is also the Basorun of Oyo lambasted the Cultural Ambassador to the late Alaafin on Cultural Matters, Dr. Paula Gomes , for what he described as her “mischief making in misinforming and misleading him into signing a letter with content contrary to its theme”.
In a press release through the Director of Media and Publicity to the Alaafin of Oyo, Bode Durojaiye, the Regent stated that Dr. Paula , a Portuguese, came into his house with a letter and urgently requested for his signature as the Regent in order for the letter to be accorded due recognition.
According to the Basorun of Oyo, ” when she Paula) came into my house, he saw me attending to a cross section of large group of people on matters of importance. But the Cultural Ambassador forced me to leave the people and attended to her with letter she brought.
“I ceded to her request and we moved to my sitting room, as many of my children were in the house. She told me that the letter in her hand would be sent to the Minister of Information and Culture in Abuja that day, but would require my signature as the Regent for approval for the forthcoming World Sango Festival.
“I told the Cultural Ambassador to leave the letter and come back the next day to collected, so that I can go through it before appending my signature. But she ( Paula) insisted that the letter must not be delayed as the Minister has been waiting for the letter.
” Since the Cultural Ambassador had been with my late Royal Boss for years, I have no reason to doubt or have ill feeling towards her, but to have confidence in her. I took the letter from her and signed it , after which she ( Paula) collected it back and left my residence.
The Regent went further , ” I was surprised when the next day the letter which Paula brought that I signed became a subject of ridicule in the social media .
” It was one of my children that later informed me that in the letter which I signed, though on the forthcoming World Sango Festival, there is a paragraph contained in the letter in which the endorsement of one Sangowale Ibuowo was mischievously tucked in it”.
” I found it unbelievable that the Cultural Ambassador to my late Royal Father could be so untrustworthy and deceitful to have tricked me into signing a content in the letter that is not within my purview.
High Chief Ayoola further explained that as a Regent, his responsibilty is to maintain the status quo by ensuring peace and orderliness in the town, maintenance of security in the Palace and not to choose or select a new Elegun Sango.
Baba further said and I quote, that, ” I am neither a Sango priest, head of the Sago family at Koso, nor the Alaafin who has the sole authority of endorsing the candidature of a new Elegun Sango.
” I am therefore informing the media to please let the world and in particular, the Minister of Information and Culture know that I did not endorse the candidature of Sangowale Ibuowo as the new Elegun Sango Koso Oyo, while the purported picture of the so called new Elegun Sango should be rejected with immediate effect, the Regent asserted.
