The Egbe Omo Ogbomoso Parapo Agbaye has rejected the caretaker committee recently announced by the Soun of Ogbomoso, Oba Ghandi Afolabi Olaoye, describing the move as illegal and divisive.
Oba Ghandi had on August 25 dissolved the executive of the association and named a caretaker committee headed by former Executive Secretary of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Prof. Olusegun Ajiboye. The monarch explained that the decision was necessary to reposition the group in line with the 25-year development plan he unveiled.
However, in a statement issued after an emergency meeting held on Monday at its secretariat in Ogbomoso, the association declared the dissolution “null, void, unconstitutional and ultra vires.”
The statement, signed by Acting President, Alhaji Abdulrahim Adetayo Yusuf, and Public Relations Officer, Comrade T. M. Balogun, stressed that Egbe Omo Ogbomoso Parapo Agbaye is a duly registered legal entity with its constitution and Board of Trustees recognized by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
“It is ironic and unacceptable for an honorary Grand Patron of a registered organization with an approved constitution to unilaterally dissolve its elected executive and appoint a caretaker committee. The act is unknown to the constitution of Egbe Omo Ogbomoso Parapo Agbaye and cannot stand,” the association stated.
The group also announced the suspension of Engineer Lanre Ogunwole, who was named caretaker chairman, and affirmed Yusuf, a surviving member of the Board of Trustees, as Acting President.
Warning that the monarch’s action risked deepening divisions in Ogbomoso, the association noted that other traditional rulers serving as life patrons were not consulted before the announcement.
“This is a clarion call to all Ogbomoso sons and daughters at home and abroad to disregard the purported dissolution and the illegal caretaker committee,” the statement read, insisting that the association remains “vibrant and alive with its elected executive and living Board of Trustees.”
