Ibadan stampede: God will vindicate you, Ooni tells ex-queen
The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has assured his ex-queen, Naomi Silekunola, that God will vindicate her trial on the stampede that claimed the lives of 35 children during a Christmas funfair she organised in Ibadan, Oyo State, on December 4.
Oba Ogunwusi absolved his former wife of ill intent to harm the children and other participants of the programme.
He noted that she organised the event with the noble intention of putting smiles on the faces of underprivileged children.
Silekunola, the proprietor of an Ibadan-based radio station, Agidigbo FM, Alhaji Oriyomi Hamzat, and the Principal of Islamic High School, Bashorun, Ibadan, where the programme was held, Abdulahi Fasasi, are facing a four-count charge of conspiracy, causing death by negligence, endangering public safety, and failing to provide adequate security and medical facilities at the event.
An Ibadan Magistrate’s Court had on December 24, 2024, remanded the trio in prison over the matter.
Similarly, Justice K.B. Olawoyin of the State High Court in Ibadan refused to release the defendants on bail when the case came up before him on Tuesday.
Justice Olawoyin adjourned the ruling on the bail applications until Monday, January 13, 2025.
Since the inception of the case, supporters of the ex-queen have been calling on Oba Ogunwusi to intervene and secure her release.
Some supporters accused Ooni of not taking sufficient steps to ensure his former wife was not jailed.
However, the monarch explained that he could not interfere in the matter beyond praying for the ex-queen, stating that only God and the court could decide her fate.
Ooni spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Otunba Moses Olafare, in an interview with Saturday PUNCH on Friday.
He said, “The case is before the court. We cannot interfere with the court process; we will wait for the court’s outcome, and we will not take any step that will jeopardise the court’s process on the matter. We hope she will eventually be exonerated. We don’t know what the court has for her.
“The only thing we can do for her now is to pray to God to vindicate her, and the Ooni, Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi believes God will vindicate her because she had good intentions for the programme. She has always cared for children, especially the underprivileged, even when she was in the palace. Nobody ever died during such events when she organised them in the past.
“She must have organised about three or four editions while at the palace, and nobody died. We understand she had been doing it even before she came to the palace and continued doing it after leaving the palace. The Ibadan edition is not the first children’s programme she has held since leaving the palace.
“Based on that, we are wishing her well and praying that God grants her justice. God will vindicate her. We believe she must have acted in good conscience. Nobody organises an event intending to harm people. We at the palace wish her well and pray for her eventual exoneration.”
