Ladoja receives Staff of Office as beaded crown wearing Ibadan Monarch
By BASHIR ADEFAKA
Former Governor of Oyo State and the Otun Olubadan of Ibadan Land, His Royal Highness Senator Rashidi Ladoja, has officially received the beaded crown, which confers on him an Obaship title in the self-regulated kingdom.
READ ALSO: Oyo ex-Governor, Rashidi Ladoja, declares end of rift, agrees to become Ibadan beaded monarch
By receiving the crown as the next in line to the Olubadan stool, he has also fulfilled the most important prerequisite for him to ascend the throne.
He was crowned by the Olubadan of Ibadan Land, Oba Owolabi Olakulehin, at a ceremony attended by the Oyo State Acting Governor, Barrister Adebayo Lawal, in the company of other top government functionaries.
The DEFENDER reports that Oba Ladoja was presented with the Staff of Office and Instrument of Office by the Acting Governor at the event, held at the Aafin Olubadan of Ibadan Land, Oke Aremo, Ibadan, on Monday August 12, 2024.
A meeting of the members of the Olubadan-in-Council preceded the event.
Oba Ladoja, one of the 11 high chiefs in the succession line to Oba Olakulehin, had resisted the beaded crown for over seven years. All other ten high chiefs, members of the Olubadan-in-Council, had been elevated and approved as beaded crown-wearing Obas.
In a recent turn of events, however, he accepted to wear the beaded crown as part of the prerequisites to become the next Olúbàdàn of Ibadan Land.
The former Governor said his decision to accept the crown was made in response to pressure from Ibadan indigenes both at home and abroad to facilitate his ascension to the throne.
Section 4 of the reviewed Olubadan Chieftaincy Declaration, which took effect from 17 July 2024, reads, “The person who may be proposed as candidate by the Line whose turn it is to fill a vacancy in the office of the Olubadan shall be the most senior beaded crown Oba in that line.”
