New Telegraph-Admin 
Royalty departed from Semiu Adewale Ogunjobi, the King of Orile Ifo following media reports indicting him of actions not befitting a traditional ruler.
He subjected a 73-yearold Chief, Abraham Areola, to public ridicule and torture. The assault, which took place in his Ogun State domain on January 21, did not go viral until about two weeks later when photographs and video of the Gestapo-style torment flooded the internet.
Areola, who is old enough to be Ogunjobi’s father, was treated like a common criminal. What made the Oba behave like a rabid dog was a matter that should not have attracted any serious consequence.
According to reports, Areola, also known as ‘Baba Agent’, was accused of treachery for being close to one Oluaye, a man detested by Ogunjobi.
For that simple reason, the Olorile of Orile Ifo forced the elderly man to kneel down in the open, ordered his driver to rain blows and slaps on the poor Chief and boasted that nothing would happen even if the victim died in the process.
Like a drunken gang driver, Ogunjobi was carried away by his service as a policeman before ascending the throne. He emphasised that as an exserviceman, he had the Nigeria Police Force in his pocket and could get away with any misdemeanour.
What a mistake that turned out to be. The Ogun State Police Command swung into action and arrested the power drunk monarch soon after the video surfaced.
Commissioner of Police, Lanre Ogunlowo, invited the bully to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) office, Eleweran, Abeokuta. The man, who boasted that the police could do him no harm, appeared to be in safe hands oblivious of Ogunlowo’s next step.
Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State got involved and directed his Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Ganiyu Hamzat, to do the needful. The Ogun State Government slammed a six-month suspension on the kung-fu fighter. That was not all.
We must commend the Ogun State Government and the Ogun State Police Command for wading in swiftly
The police charged him to court on three counts of conspiracy, assault and conduct likely to cause breach of the peace.
When the court sat on February 4, the Magistrate, F. A. Iroko, magnanimously granted Ogunjobi bail and adjourned the case to March 6, 2025.
At least, there will be enough time for the accused to learn more lessons in leadership.
The erstwhile Orile Ifo Iroko further depreciated himself when he failed to meet the bail conditions that required two sureties in the sum of N5 million each and who must be residents of Ifo.
The police devotedly handed him over to the Nigerian Correctional Service. Now the King has become a temporary prisoner in Ilaro.
We must commend the Ogun State Government and the Ogun State Police Command for wading in swiftly. Perhaps in other states, the offender would have been shielded by both the state and the central government.
We recall that on April 4, 2015, the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, made hostile remarks which implied that if the Igbo failed to vote for Akinwunmi Ambode in the Lagos gubernatorial elections, the Lagoon would swallow them. Akiolu was neither reprimanded nor invited by the police over such insensitive comments.
Ambode went ahead to win the election but the same Oba could not save the governor when his second term bid was shot down by his political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Traditional rulers are not above the law and should not see themselves as untouchables. We must continue to salute the courage of governor Abiodun and CP Ogunlowo.
Their intervention goes to prove that democracy thrives when actors play their roles effectively.
In the past, Ogun State was in the news when the Onifojege of Fojege, Nureni Oduwaye, hit Chief Wasiu Oduwole, for dancing with his queen.
That was in September 2022. He was not charged to court. Nor was Saheed Adamson, traditional ruler of Ajido in Lagos, cautioned when he beat up one of his chiefs, the same year.
With such a courageous governor and Police Commissioner, it would be difficult for a monarch to abduct a citizen as alleged by the father of Charity Uzoechina after his missing daughter was found in the palace of the Etsu Nupe in 2015.
We do not live in ancient times when some traditional rulers saw themselves as supernatural and supreme beings while their subjects were dehumanised.
Ogunjobi will have a date with the Oba of the prison cell and part of his induction entails thorough brutalisation.
