EVEN as the murder of former Attorney-General Bola Ige remains unsolved, President Olusegun Obasanjo, the man under whose watch he was murdered, commissioned on Monday the bust of the late politician at the premises of the Osun State Governor’s Office in Osogbo.
Obasanjo had led a high-powered delegation of Owu Development Foundation members to the state on Owu chieftaincy matters.
Commenting on the large turn-out of people at the occasion, Obasanjo said, “you have flabbergasted me and if I may use the military term, you have successfully ambushed me.
“This is because I never expected to meet this large number of people. Am only to brief you on the development in Owu,” the former president said.
Obasanjo said that his mission was to brief the governor on the selection process of a new traditional ruler of the town, which made some members of the family to go to court.
According to him, when the issue of selecting a new Oba started to constitute a disturbance, the foundation, comprising Owu prominent members came for his advice.
The former president said the foundation stated that: ”I should not allow things to go sour and what I found on ground is gradually drifting to an alarming situation.
”I then formed a committee to consult and make contact with all the people involved in the chieftaincy matter so that no group or anybody is left out.
”I knew that there were people who are not satisfied with the selection process and there are people who only want recognition and they all need to be pacified,” he said.
He, however, clarified that his visit to the state was not a ploy to influence the choice of any candidate to the vacant stool, adding that he only wanted a credible candidate.
The former president used the occasion to inaugurate the bust of the late old Oyo State Governor, Chief Bola Ige, at the state governor’s office in Abere.
Gov. Rauf Aregbesola of Oshun, who received Obasanjo on his arrival, described the former president as a rare personality, who ruled Nigeria twice, both as a military ruler and a civilian president.
The chieftaincy matter in question affects the state because the Owu town in Ogun also has a sister town known as Orile-Owu in Osun.