The Ondo State government has unfolded a plan to amend the existing chieftaincy declaration to check the incessant crisis over the selection and installation of monarchs in the state.
The Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Amidu Takuro, who disclosed this on Thursday, said the ministry has received 50 proposals and 70 petitions from communities seeking the review of the existing chieftaincy declaration.
Takuro said the government would begin public hearings on Monday to listen to the agitation of those seeking the review of the existing chieftaincy declaration. He, however, said only communities with monarchs would be allowed to amend their chieftaincy declaration.
According to him, the communities should determine the number of kingmakers, ruling houses, and regencies in case of the death of a monarch in the reviewed chieftaincy declaration.
Takuro said the chieftaincy declaration has to do with the law of each community that has approved stools by the government of the state.
His words “It is expected that the people of the community led by the traditional ruler will bring his people together and other stakeholders that will determine their successors arrangements and kingmakers.
“As a ministry, we must do everything humanly possible to limit the level of numbers of litigations on chieftaincy matters in the state. In the past, we discovered that most of the declarations were being made in secrecy, and we don’t want that to continue. We want it in a way that every citizen of the community will have knowledge of what happens as regards their chieftaincy declaration.
“So to us, we set up a committee that has been approved by the Governor that will help us as much as we can for us to have a perfect chieftaincy declaration in all the stools of the Ondo State.
“We want to assure the good people of Ondo State that the committee would do justice to all their requests, and we have received some petitions against some of the proposed drafts by some of the traditional rulers, and all these things will be looked into during the sitting of this committee.
“We have received over 50 proposals, while we have also received over 70 petitions on chieftaincy declaration in the state, which some people and the community said has to be reviewed.
Some of it is still in court, and we cannot do anything about it.
“We will not allow anybody to undermine their interest whatsoever on this chieftaincy declaration in the state. Every one of the stools has the right to come together within their community according to the chieftaincy law.
“But we will not allow any traditional ruler to impose his views or interests on other communities. All these things will be sorted out, and we have some mechanism being put in place to make sure that we resolve issues like this within a short period.”
