All the Ruling Houses and three surviving kingmakers of Igu and Koton-Karfe Kingdom have rejected the deposition of His Royal Highness, Alhaji Abdulrazaq IsahKoto, the Ohimege-Igu, Koton-Karfe, by the Kogi State governor Yahaya Bello.
The ruling Houses described the deposition as a sacrilege on the Igu traditional institution.
At a press conference held at the NUJ press centre in Utako, Abuja, yesterday, the representative of the eight ruling houses and spokesperson, Alhaji Kolo Yakubu Ameh, said the purported coronation of another person as Ohimege will not stand.
He said deposition of their revered king was politically motivated, adding that the coronation and installation of the Ohimege 11 years ago was a cultural stool, and not a political office.
“After 11 years on the throne, you now came out to say that you want to depose the king without a fact. First year, second year, and now ten years after, this is injustice because politics is involved. We have never selected our king by political appointment.”
The Ohimege Igu Alhaji Abdulrazaq Isah Koto, who was also the chairman, Lokoja/ Kogi Local Government Area Traditional Council, was deposed and banished to Rijau Local Government Area of Niger State by Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello on the 8th of January, 2024.
Part of the statement reads: “It’s pertinent to state that out of the three royal fathers that were purportedly deposed and banished, it’s only Alh. Abdulrazak Gambo Sani Isakoto who was replaced immediately by that proclamation with the speed of light. This smacks off arbitrariness and punishment.
“What has happened on this vexed issue is an anathema and a real mockery of our centuries-long and revered kingship institution of the Ohimege Igu, Koton-Karfe and which, if not urgently addressed, poses great and imminent danger to our well respected and highly acclaimed kingship institution and the peace and tranquility of our very old kingdom.
“It is therefore imperative to use this medium to intimate the Kogi state government, its agents and the general public that the capricious proclamation is unacceptable and rejected in its entirety as it relates to our dear kingdom and the revered institution of the Ohimege Igu, Koton-Karfe.”
It insisted that it would not accept what it termed the desecration of its age long customs and traditions.
“We, therefore, certainly consider the abominable deposition of our loving and well respected Ohimege, Alh. Abdulrazaq Gambo Sani Isakoto, as an ugly political vendetta orchestrated by some political Lilliputians with bloated images of their perceived personal self-worth,” the group added.
