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October 30, 2023
SaharaReporters learnt that many residents of the community were angered by Bello's failure to attend the burial of the prominent monarch or send representatives.
Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State failed to honour an invitation sent to him to attend the burial of the late Ohinoyi of Ebiraland, Ado Ibrahim, SaharaReporters has gathered.
The Paramount ruler of Ebira land died in the early hours of Sunday at the age of 95 after a brief illness.
The late Ado Ibrahim was coronated in 1997 as the Ohinoyi of Ebiraland by the then-Governor of Kogi State, the late Prince Abubakar Audu.
He took over from Alhaji Sanni Omolorim who reigned between 1957 and 1997.
SaharaReporters gathered that the state governor, Yahaya Bello was not present during the burial of the prominent traditional ruler. Worse still, no government official was sent to the event which took place on Sunday in accordance with Islamic customs.
According to a source privy to the incident, the burial was delayed till around 8 p.m. as the community kept awaiting the arrival of the governor or representatives of the state government to grace the occasion.
SaharaReporters learnt that many residents of the community were angered by Bello's failure to attend the burial of the prominent monarch or send representatives.
Some of them expressed the belief that the governor’s attitude might be due to his strained relationship with the late traditional ruler.
A source said, “So, many residents are angry that Yahaya Bello refused to attend the burial of the king who died yesterday.
“No government personnel even attended the burial and the community had to delay the burial till around 8 p.m., hoping that the governor would attend or send representatives.”
Trouble between Governor Bello and the late Ado Ibrahim started when the Ohinoyi did not show up when the former Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari visited Kogi in 2022 to inaugurate some projects, one of which was said to be in the Ohinoyi’s domain.
The government subsequently issued a query to the paramount traditional ruler, asking him to explain why he failed to attend the welcoming ceremony organised for Buhari.
Efforts to get the reaction of the state government to the allegations failed as the Commissioner of Information and Communications, Kingsley Fanwo did not answer repeated calls from SaharaReporters.
Fanwo also failed to reply to WhatsApp messages sent to him even when the app showed they had been read.