The traditional prime minister of Ile-Ife and second in command to the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, the Obalufe of Ife, Chief Samuel Omisakin, is ill.
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Sources in Ile Ife said the 83-year-old foremost chief who ascended to his position on June 1, 1988, had been ill for about two weeks and was on admission at an undisclosed hospital in Ife.H
is ill-health, it was gathered, was causing anxiety in traditional circle in the ancient town following Tuesday’s transition of the monarch in a London hospital.
By tradition, Omisakin, as the most senior chief in Ife, is to oversee the affairs of the kingdom pending the enthronement of a new king.
This is just as the Ife Royal Traditional Council still stuck to its position that Oba Sijuwade was “hale and hearty.”
Members of the council, comprising all traditional title holders from Ile Ife, met in Osogbo with Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, over the controversy surrounding the “rumoured” death of Oba Sijuwade.
The meeting, held behind closed doors at the Government House, was also attended by notable Ife indigenes, but none of the participants at the meeting was willing to discuss what they deliberated on.
However, one of the chiefs confided in New Telegraph that they came to brief the governor on the situation in Ife and to inform him that since the council had not been formally briefed, the death of Oba Sijuwade remained a rumour.
Before the meeting, there was a mild protest from Lowa of Ife, Oba Joseph Ijaodola, who said it was saddening that the Ooni was “often a target of negative publicity with the press declaring him dead several times in the past.
“We were all shocked when we heard the rumour. If at all such an incident had occurred, the traditional council would be the first to know and equally break the news to the entire public.
“Sixteen of us are his chiefs and when he was travelling out, he didn’t look like he was going to die and should that have happened to him, we would have been informed even before anyone would hear about it.
“We pray that Ooni Sijuwade will live long in good health,” he told reporters.
He stated they met with the governor “to update him about happenings around Oba Sijuwade,” even as he reiterated his earlier stand that the Ooni is hale and hearty.
He urged the public to disregard the news of the Ooni’s death, which he described as a rumour.
He said Aregbesola gave kudos to the chiefs for holding forth while the monarch was away and prayed for sound health and long life for Oba Sijuwade.
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