TRADITIONAL RULER BAGS TWO MONTHS SUSPENSION WITHOUT SALARIES FOR ABUSING NAIRA NOTES

By Olayiwola Ibrahim // A traditional ruler, Oba Kolawole Sowemimo, known as the Olu of Owode in Obafemi/ Owode Local Government area of the State has bagged two months suspension wothout salaries

This suspension came as a result of a viral video in early January showed the royal father decorating a popular Fuji musician, Wasiu Ayinde, with knitted new notes of N1,000 which was used as a garland to decorate the musician.

This led the council to move against Sowemimo for publicly degrading Nigerian currency, an offence that contravenes the law of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

His suspension was called for during the Egba Traditional Council meeting chaired by the Alake and paramount ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo on Friday.

During the call of Sowemimo’s suspension, he said that he totally accept the verdict of the council because it is the person that we love that we chastise, so I am good with the decision.

Oba Kolawole Sowemimo apologised for his undue act in spending money inappropriately on a musician, which made his suspension been reduced to two months without salaries, not to parade himself in public or any government activities during the suspension period.

The meeting in a joint resolution adopted the suspension of the monarch following the recommendation of its Ethics Committee which declared that during the period of his Sowemimo suspension, he should not parade himself as a traditional ruler.

It was further gathered that the resolution emphasized that Sowemimo should not be invited or seen at any government or public function as a traditional ruler, and for three months should not receive any payments.

The Chairman of a three-member Ethics Committee of the Egba Traditional Council, Oba Saka Matemilola, who read the report of the committee, said that the committee came to its decision after examining the viral video in which Sowemimo breached the ethics of a Yoruba traditional institution by defacing Nigeria’s currency.

The chairman added that a lot of public condemnation of the act inundated the council with derisive comments on the traditional institution, stressing that the said Oba’s action is in contradiction of Section 21(1) of Central Bank Act, 2007.

According to the National Orientation Agency had also last month issued a strict warning to the embattled traditional ruler for abusing the naira notes during his 13th anniversary of ascension to the royal stool.

Reacting to the video in a statement signed and directed to the monarch, Director General, NOA, Lanre Issa-Onilu, said the display was an abuse of the national currency that attracts imprisonment, fines, or both.