By Gbenga Olarinoye

OSOGBO—Prominent  traditional rulers in Osun State have dissociated themselves from the mass endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan for a second term in office arguing that it was wrong for royal fathers to be partisan.

The Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade had recently in his palace in Ile-Ife led other prominent monarchs in Yorubaland to endorse President Jonathan for another four years term.

But in what appears to be a crack in the ranks of traditional rulers in the state, a faction of the rulers who met in Ikirun, headquarters of Ifelodun Local Government Area of the state yesterday stated that the purported endorsement of Jonathan by a section of the royal fathers had put the traditional institution in public ridicule.

The statement of the group which was read by Akirun of Ikirun, Oba Abdulrauf Adedeji reads in part: “Of recent, the press is awash with the report of and comments on the endorsement of a particular presidential candidate by some traditional rulers in Osun State and the use of their beaded walking sticks to pray for him.

“It was also alleged that in the process, huge amount of hard currency was doled out. This has become the general talk in the public domain.

“The general impression is that all traditional rulers in Osun State without exception were involved. Consequently, our subjects have been accosting us, demanding our explanation for engaging in such act.

“Some of them (our subjects) have also demanded for their own share of money collected by us. No doubt this is an embarrassing situation to us. For this reason,we have decided to make it clear to the public that not all traditional rulers were involved in the act.

“Particularly, we the undersigned and many others were not involved and are hereby dissociating ourselves from the  episode.

“Our main concern is good governance, that will bring life  to our people. As the saying goes, the glory of a king is the welfare of his people. We believe very much in this wise saying. It is therefore, our wish and prayer that whoever emerges as the winner will be the one that will bring make more abundant to our people.

“We, therefore, call on our people to vote according to their conscienece and not on consideration of monetary graft.

“We also appeal to the politicians to play the game according to the rules, devoid of violence and other forms of foul play.”