Oluship Crisis: No Going Back On 1979 Succession Edict, It’s Sacrosanct – Itsekiri Ruling House Princes Side Ologbotsere

• Say Ologbostere Can’t Be Remove By Nobody Than A Reigning King

More oppositions have greeted the purported emergence of Prince Tsola Emiko as Olu-Designate as Itsekiri ruling house princes, on Thursday, threw their weight behind the Ologbotsere of Warri Kingdom, Chief Ayirimi Emami on the sacrosanct of the Edict (Bendel State Gazette of September 1979), which is explicit in choosing and crowning an Olu.

BIGPENNGR reports that this is coming as princes from the ruling house, criticized the method of the purported selection of Olu-Designate, without reference to the existing edict gazetted in 1979.

Addressing a news conference in Warri, Prince Omolubi Newuwumi flanked by Prince Mode Akoma and others, insisted that anything done without reference to the succession Edict of 1979 which stipulated among other things, the process to select a new Olu (King) of Warri, is null and void ab initio.

Omolubi, who is also a fist class chief in the kingdom, said what those who insisted on jettisoning the Edict has done was like “shifting the goal post while the match is still on” and such must be condemned by all good Itsekiri blood.

“My view over the kingship of Warri kingdom have been clearly stated in my first publication titled “Itsekiri Must Get It Right This Time” and I am tagging this write-up as “Da-tse-ru-to-jor” that is “let us do things right”.

“I Prince Omolubi, Prince Mode Akoma and other princes who refused participation in the so-called Itsekiri Assembly led by Chief Johnson Atserunleghe, was done outside the existing Edict (law) of 1979 of the then Bendel State which is now applicable to Delta State.

“This is the true position of what transpired between the Ginuwa 1 ruling house after the presentation of Prince Tsola Emiko by the Emikos family.

“The Olori-Ebi Prince Emmanuel Okotie-Eboh failed completely by not taking into consideration some major observation as it affects the selection process of the meeting held on the 18th February 2021, he went straight on the 19th February 2021 to recommend in writing and announcing Prince Tsola Emiko, to the advisory council of chiefs.

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​”I still stand by the edict (law) of 1979 because that was what restrained me Prince Omolubi from not being a contender of the Olu-elect because I am fully qualified by birth.

“If my brothers are saying that the edict (law) should be ruled out, I stand to be corrected which means I and other qualified candidates would have contested.”

He maintained that account to section 8 of the traditional rulers and chiefs edict (law) of 1979, the the customary law regarding succession to the title of the Olu of Warri, recognized only one ruling house known as Ginuwa 1.

He said the edict also specially noted that succession is limited to Olu’s company (Otolus) who had previously reigned from the last three (3) Olus.

The Edict further stated that to qualify as a candidate, mother of the Olu must be an Itsekiri or of Edo origin, which automatically disqualified Tsola Emiko.

In conclusion, he said the Edict also stated that, “the Olori-Ebi has no right under any of our traditional law to suspend the Ologbotsere because only a king that gives chieftaincy title can dethrone a chief, the authority belongs to a king alone as you cannot give what you don’t have.”

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Omolubi, said it was an aberration for the Iyatsere to call the Itsekiri Assembly in as much there is a living Ologbotsere.”

BIGPENNGR reported that Chief Johnson Amatserunreleghe, the Iyatsere of Warri, had at a brief ceremony at Ode-Itsekiri announced the son of Atuwatse ll, the 19^th Olu of Warri, Prince Tsola Emiko, as the new Olu of Warri.

Amatserunreleghe, also officially announced the passage of His Royal Majesty, Ogiame Ikenwoli at the Ode-Itsekiri, the ancestral home of the Itsekiri people.

The announcement followed week-long of intrigues and bitter tirade which had greeted the Olu throne in the past few months.

But Ayirimi Emami, the Ologbotsere of Warri Kingdom, declared that the 1979 edict which gazetted the traditional processes, passage and enthronement procedures of a new Olu, which has not been amended till date, gave no other person the right to pronounce the passage of the Olu of Warri, apart from the Ologbotsere.

Chief Emami said; “The person that has the right to pronounce the transition of the Olu of Warri, whenever that happens, is the Ologbotsere, which I am till this moment by the grace of God. I must add that the 1979 edict has not been amended to give any other person the right to pronounce the passage of the Olu of Warri, apart from the Ologbotsere “.

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