Alleged Indebtedness: Ooni Slams Punch Newspapers, Says Publication "Mischievous"

Palace of the Arole Oduduwa & Ooni of Ife, Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II, has reacted to a viral report orchestrated by Punch newspapers, stating that the frontline monarch chose to disobey a court judgment which ordered the payment of some persons who claimed to have worked for him through a company disclosed as Jamasco Industries Limited.

In a statement by its Director of Media and Public Affairs, Otunba Moses Olafare, the Palace described the report which has gone viral as bad journalism, adding that those behind the story only chose to be mischievous.

What is #600,000 for God's sake? Did anyone even contact us about this before for God's sake? The answer is NO. You see, Baba Ooni even has zero tolerance to see vulnerable members of the society suffer, he would have rather taken care of them should he have been informed on the plight of these affected people irrespective of whether they were being owed by his company or not. We are talking of aged people here for God's sake. I already asked for the contacts and account details of the affected aged men since yesterday morning when the matter came to my knowledge and I had waited patiently for their account details until I saw the character assassinating news mischievously reported in Punch newspapers today. 

"The Palace was informed about these whole thing less than two days ago through a phone call from the Osun state correspondent of Punch Newspapers who had sought our reaction in which I clearly gave our side of the story to include Baba Ooni's non-ownership of the alleged company, his unawareness of the said salaries being owed and that he would not be unwilling to give them the money as a humanitarian that he is, So, why the hullabaloo and the malicious news reports again? 

It's just too bad that the supposed objective media platform mutilated the response they sought and misinformed the public in an attempt to malign the person of the Ooni and the respected stool of Ife.

"I already explained to their correspondent that the Ooni used to own a quarry in Ibadan with the company's name as alleged but that was a long time ago, more than 10 years ago for God's sake and he had since transferred the company to another management long before he even ascended the throne in 2015.

"I also told them that, most probably to get patronage, the new management decided to retain Kabiesi's name as a Director, don't forget there's a difference between being a director and being the Chief Executive in a company. By the way, is Ooni the only Director of the company? Was the Chief Executive Officer of the company contacted over the debt owed the staff he hired? Who were the respondents in the case instituted against the company that owed the workers? These are some of the questions that should be answered.

"The Ooni never engaged the workers as he was never the owner of the company he had even exited the company as at when the workers were employed, how would he then have knowledge of their employment and travails? It must also be noted that Baba didn't know a case like that was instituted against any company he had relationship with, let alone refusing to obey the reported court decision. 

"Upon the reception of the said petition around 3am on Saturday, Kabiyesi in his usual humanistic nature directed the immediate identification of the persons involved and their account details with a clear instruction that I should immediately pay the money with a view to alleviating sufferings of the affected persons who are aged and vulnerable.

"Unknown to the purveyors of the erroneous report, I have already made the payment of N600,000 to the affected elderly persons through the First Bank account given to me by their lawyer; Barrister Femi Aborisade while efforts are ongoing to meet with them to be pacified, not because of the so called court case but because those affected are septuagenarians who should never be made to suffer for whatever reason. That's the Ooni's directive.", Otunba Olafare stated.

Similarly, the said company: Jomasco Industries Limited through its Legal Adviser; Dapo Ogunwusi & Co, in a statement condemned the report, describing it as containing critical irregularity.

The company stated that, "The case came to settlement to save the plaintiffs the stress of an unnecessarily long legal entanglement as the company itself had stopped operating in 2011.

"The defendants thus decided on settlement the terms of which came to be the judgement of court as per the rules and normal practice.

"While I do not dispute the judgement, kindly permit me to put on record that the Punch story contained a critical irregularity or to be more cryptic, a falsity.

"N600,000 was the sum total of the agreement which was adopted by the court as judgment. The indication that the judgment indicated N600,000 for each of the claimants is false. The original prayer before the court was not even anywhere near that. 

"We hope Punch and the media will take cognisance of that and be more careful with facts which are sacred in this particular case."