Last week, we served you the first part of the interview with Prince Olatunde Olanipekun where he spoke about his Obaship tussle with Alhaji Yisa Olanipekun who is currently the Zaki of Arigidi-Akoko in Ondo State. The case has been in court for over ten years now and the court is yet to determine who the legitimate king of Arigidi is. In this interview with City People’s Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL, Prince Olatunde Olanipekun, an accomplished Chartered Accountant who has served as Finance Director to some of the biggest multinational companies in the land and whose modest developmental contributions are scattered all over Arigidi, opened up on some of the facts of the case and why he’s confident that he would triumph at the Supreme Court when judgement is finally delivered.
People often fondly refer to you as Kabiyesi, everywhere you go they all call you Kabiyesi, how did that evolve?
Well, I guess it’s because they were the people who said I should put in. To the majority of people in Arigidi, as far they are concerned, I’m their preferred choice, and that’s why they call me Kabiyesi. Since that battle started, they have all identified me as their king. And like I said, all the prominent sons and daughters of Arigidi they see me as their choice. And that is why Arigidi is where it is today. The people are not encouraged to go home. The aftermath of his reign of terror was the unleashing of the so-called palace boys who were beating and harassing innocent people. If you go to Arigidi today, you’ll be sorry that you’re from that place. That’s why when I read that development is going on in Arigidi I just laughed. Where are the developments after 10 years? If you go to Arigidi right now, the whole town is in darkness, the only place you’ll see life is in Agbaluku. The few things happening around that area have been courtesy of the Lawmaker, BTO, who is the Chairman of NDDC in the house. He’s using his influence at NDDC to do a few things. For a long time now, Arigidi has been an unsafe place to go. Once it’s dark, you see thugs attacking people. People have been beheaded, people have been buried alive. So, I wonder which development he was talking about.
Whose responsibility is it, sir, to arrange for an Ifa priest to consult the Oracle? I ask this question because Zaki, in the interview, said Aare Gani Adams got an Ifa priest to do the consultation which was not done in the presence of everybody..
Certainly, it was not in the place of Gani Adams to consult Ifa priest or whatever. Gani Adams is just an Otunba in Arigidi and I don’t want to go into the reservations I have about his Otunba title and why I think it’s alien to our culture in that part of the country. And I must not forget to add that one of the people that they killed, Sparkle, has not been buried till today because his family said they will not bury him until justice has been served. Many houses were also burnt, which is why many indigenes of Arigidi have refused to go home because there’s no house to return to. I almost forgot to mention that Adebusuyi and Ajama Commission of Enquiries were set up by former governor Mimiko on Arigidi matters. The release of the white papers would’ve offered a lasting solution to the imbroglio, but rather, unfortunately, it is yet to see the light of day. We are hoping the government will release the white papers soon so we can know the way forward. As we speak, we have representations to Governor Akeredolu too on this.
If you were given the opportunity to become the Zaki at this very moment, what will be your immediate priorities in terms of at least bringing some semblance of development to Arigidi-Akoko?
Like I said, what was supposed to be paramount in Arigidi was the unity of the whole sections. When he came, some parts were not willing to give him any support. As a matter of fact, some parts were agitating they want to be autonomous. They didn’t want to be part of Arigidi again. I remember when late Zaki died, the pastor visited the family in the palace when we were planning the burial, and one of the things he said is that let us use this man’s death to unite all the sections. So, if I come in today, my first priority is to unite all the sections. Number two, easily I can bring development to that town. I am in touch with all the prominent sons and daughters of Arigidi. All the who is who in Arigidi, I’ve had personal interactions with them. The Agbi family, Akande family, the Orojo family, all of them I have had personal interaction with them. Even all their children here in Lagos are people I interact with, and they always tell me, go and become king so that we will have reasons to start coming home. So, all these people I can attract to come and do things at home. Again, given my connections in the corporate world, there are a lot of things I can attract and bring to the town. We have done feasibility studies for Arigidi. I have the print outs, they are in the archives. Last year when they said they wanted to create new LCDAs, I was the one that went to my archives to bring out materials which we used along with Professor Adamu back in those days. When they gave it to Gani Adams, he said there is nothing to add to these papers. I have those papers we prepared long time ago when we were asking for local governments for Arigidi. So, to make case for a bank or whatever, we know that banks are commercial entities, they don’t go to places on sentiments. They look at profitability. We started a bank sometime ago but somehow the bank was killed through mismanagement. As a matter of fact, the house where we located the bank was my uncle’s house. He vacated the house and donated it to the bank. Just to show how we have been involved in a lot of things. Even in my own capacity, I have many plots of lands in Arigidi. I want to go into agriculture, I want to go into hotel business and so many other things. Another factor that will be of help is that most of the people in power or government are either my mates in the university or juniors, people I can easily relate to. Mimiko and I were school mates at Ife. He read Medicine, I read Economics. Segun Abraham who contested for the governorship of Ondo State was my junior in Victory College. The day I was burying an uncle of mine and he was on a campaign train, he came to that event. When he saw me and he held me, Arigidi people were wondering, does he know this man too? So, with my background and level of education, I can open any door. You cannot compare me with somebody that didn’t go to school. I remember that at the Tribunal, he showed that he lacks education and tact to speak in public. There were so many careless statements that he made and had to be cautioned. The judge told me you don’t have to descend to the gutter along with this fellow. Tribunal judge said so when he was saying somebody’s grandfather was leprous, that there was Leprosy in our family. Let him mention how many people are leprous in my family. He said the same thing and he was cautioned. He still mentioned it here in this interview but I will not descend to his level. We are talking about a tout, somebody that will remove Agbada and start fighting on the streets of Ikare.
What has been the position of the prominent families in Arigidi regarding this matter? How have they expressed their displeasure over this matter?
They have refused to recognize him as their Zaki. They have refused to associate with him. Any event that he wants to do, you won’t see them there. As a matter of fact, he has they have reduced their visits to that town and those are the people that can develop that town. All he has around him are retired teachers who also serve as his chief advisers, what quality of development can you engender from those people? So, the people have decided that until Arigidi has the king of their choice, they will not have anything to do in that place. When some of them come to Arigidi, they stay in a hotel and by the next day they take their leave, that’s if they can’t return the same day. And that’s because they have refused to build their house and secondly because of insecurity. This is a person that if he hears you’re in Arigidi now, he will send people to you, asking that won’t you come and greet the Zaki? Is it the Zaki that is supposed to ask you to come and pay homage to him? But when I am in Arigidi, it’s a festival every day in my house. You’ll begin to see people troop into the house to see me.
The Zaki claimed in the interview that Prophet T.B. Joshua has retraced his steps and pitched tent with him and has in fact been supporting him financially, morally and what have you, so where does that leave your relationship with the prophet?
Like I said earlier, he is a man of God and I have been in that church since 1994, so I can say I know the workings of his mind. He tells us several times that he can give the best of what he has to his enemies. That is what he preaches, love your enemy. So, that he has given him money or whatever, he’s just practicing what he preaches. When I heard he said he bought him a car, I know what transpired. He came and he said his car broke down, he had no car to take home. There was a time the Prophet bought a car for Olukare, so he hurriedly came to Lagos so he could get his own. Number two, he said the prophet is building him a palace, and I said it’s another laughable thing. The palace does not belong to any individual, it belongs to the town. That means the prophet is building the palace for the town. Unless he wants to prove that the palace has been built on his own personal land and not on the community land, so how can he appropriate that achievement to himself is what I can’t understand. When I went home last year, some of my supporters came to me and asked, why is the prophet building him a palace and I said, is the palace for Yisa Olanipekun or for Arigidi –Akoko? They said they wanted to write a protest letter to the prophet and I said it’s not necessary, the palace is for Arigidi, whoever becomes the Oba will be there. Funny enough, when the prophet and I see inside the church, we hardly even discuss Obaship matters. But we are very close, he remains my spiritual father.
Finally, sir, how much trust do you have in the judicial system? Can you confidently say that, at the end of the day, you believe that justice will be truly served in this case?
Certainly, that’s the last hope of the common man. I believe, because in fairness, the judgement I’ve gotten have been very promising. The facts are clear. If the High Court judge said don’t parade yourself and the Appeal Court affirms that judgement, I don’t see the Supreme Court reversing the decision of these two courts. I say this because in the Supreme Court you don’t advance fresh evidences, you work on the already existing evidences. He even went to the extent of intimidating my lawyer and that one withdrew from that case. I got another fiery lawyer now and that one has been pursuing the case. Any moment from now we’ll get a date from the Supreme Court. To answer your question directly, I have confidence in the Judiciary that they will do the right thing at the right time.
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