About two years after Chief Ayiri Emami was suspended as Ologbotsere of Warri and chairman of the Olu Advisory Council, one of the Princes of Warri Kingdom, Yemi Emiko, who took part in the decision has said they acted in error.
Prince Emiko’s revelation followed an outburst by one of the elders in Warri Kingdom, Mene Brown, that the Princes have no say in running affairs of the Olu palace and the Itsekiri Kingdom.
It would be recalled that Chief Emami was suspended as Prime Minister of Warri in the wake of the crisis that rocked the selection of the sitting Olu of Warri, Tsola Emiko, as Olu designate.
Ayiri had insisted that the selection of Prince Emiko as Omoba following the passage of Ogiame Ikenwoli ran foul of the process to the enthronement of a new Olu.
The peace moves initiated by the Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, last year did not yield results as the Olu of Warri, His Majesty, Ogiame Atuwatse III, last April installed Chief Oma Eyewuoma as the new Ologbotsere of Warri Kingdom.
Speaking in an interview with journalists in Abuja yesterday, Prince Emiko stated that Chief Brown’s remarksthat the Princes have no say in the operation of the Olu palace invariably meant that the suspension of Chief Emami was done in error and consequently null and void in the eyes of the law.
He said, “In 2021, I, Yemi Emiko, took the lead in the activities that suspended Ayiri Emami from being Ologbotsere. We appointed Iyatsere, as acting chairman, Council of Chiefs. That singular action paved the way for the current Olu to mount the throne. If Mene Brown is saying I, as a prince or princes in Warri Kingdom don’t have a say, then automatically, he is saying that everything we did at that time is illegal.”
Asked if the action against Chief Ayiri was illegal, Prince Emiko refused to answer in the affirmative, noting that the matrer was already being challenged in court.
He stated: “As you know, the matter is already in court. We took certain actions and I am not sitting here to tell you that every action we took at the time was 100 percent correct or legal because we have a law that regulates, that governs succession processes in Warri Kingdom and the law is very clear.
“We took certain steps, certain actions in hope that when the Olu emerges, Itsekiri will sit down and look at those provisions of that law and see how best we can tinker with it to be in compliance.
“We are leaving ourselves open because the matter is in court already and it’s subjudice. I don’t want to get deep in all of that. But when elders like Chief Brown Mene comes out to be saying this kind of things, it leaves a lot of sour taste in my mouth because I expect elders like him to take actions and say things that will bring people and the kingdom together and not to further tear us apart.”
Describing the removal of Chief Emami as Ologbotsere and installation of a new holder of the title last April as unfortunate, he noted that the axed traditional prime minister of Warri Kingdom committed no crime as he was trying to protect the laws guiding the installation of Olu of Warri.
He comtinued: “It isn’t that Ayiri committed any crime, No!. Ayiri, I will say this a million times that Ayiri did not commit any crime against anybody in this land. All Ayiri did was to stand by the law.
“Ayiri is not the one who wrote the law, but if you look, Ologbotsere is the one written all over the place as the owner of the process. He came to say the way I know this things is like this, but we did some things because we saw that this guy was popular among the youths.
“And I called some of the elders that this is our own #EndSARS protest, they want this guy, let’s try and find a way to put him on the throne after which we can then sit down to amend the law. But they got there and threw everybody away. I’m yet to see what the crime is all about.”
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