Moshood Adebayo
Ogun State Government has approved the selection of a Chief Superintendent of Customs, Prince Saburee Babjide Bakre, as the new Agura of Gbagura, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Daily Sun gathered that the Agura-elect, was picked among other eight contestants after “due process.”
Bakre, 59, hails from the Jamolu family of Egiri Ruling House, one of the two ruling houses, to succeed Oba Halidu Olaloko, Sobekun II, who died on July 12, 2018.
Gbagura is one of the four quarters in Abeokuta, homestead of the late Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola, winner of the historic June 12, 1993 presidential election.
The state executive council, last week, approved Bakre’s selection after Gbagura kingmakers were said to have picked him among other contestsnts following the tradition of the community.
However, aggrieved members of the Egiri Ruling House, majorly princes have perfected plans to contest the selection process in court.
But a Gbagura chief, who confided in Daily Sun in Abeokuta, yesterday, about the new appointment said: “They (kingmakers) have done their own bit of the selection process and I can tell you that a new Agura will be announced by the government any moment.”
On the planned court action by a section of the royal house, the source said: “There is nothing bad in them going to court. All I know is that the new Agura-elect is most qualified among those parading themselves as princes in term of education, pedigree, influence, exposure and other virtues.”
The father of the new Agura, who is the son of an hospitality business proprietor in Abeokuta, was said to have contested the stool with the late Agura, Oba Laloko.
The Agura-elect’s grandfather had also contested the stool with father of the immediate past Agura, Oba Laloko, who reigned for 38 years and the longest Oba to reign in Agura.