THE COUNCIL CHAIRMAN'S QUERY IS BASELESS, ACT OF INTIMIDATION

Razaq Adedeji Jimph

The Onisheri of Isheri, HRM, Oba Dr. Ibrahim Olasunkanmi Lawal-Bello (COP), has described the publicised query given to him by the Executive Chairman of Egbe-Idimu LCDA as unwarranted and "baseless", noting that it had no other purpose than being a deliberate act of intimidation and intentional blackmail to coerce him for whatever the cause he could have premeditated.

The monarch said this while giving his account of the issue surrounding the recent brouhaha over the stretch of land under the double Powerline in the Isheri Olofin corridor in Alimosho LGA. He said The Counvil Chairman, Hon Prince Idris Balogun, was a direct party in the issue and it was his case against the artisans plying their trades under the Powerline following their disagreement over "payment of royalty" demanded by the Council Chairman.

All effort to reach the Council Chairman by this magazine was not a success. A message to one of his political aides, Mr Adeyeye, who was mentioned as the Chairman's proxy in all trace of our investigation could not be helpful either as he preferred us to speak with the Chairman's media aides. We objected to that because we believed they would lack the capacity to address the salient questions connected to the side of Council Chairman in the issue as we found in our preliminary investigations.

While the query made its flying around as "Press Release" from the Council without any insignia of the Council attached to it, all official statements shunned out by the media office were also silent on the query.Our enquiries from the monarch however confirmed that he actually received the query on December 19, 2025 with another letter requesting him to return the official vehicle given to him by the Council "within 24hours".

Speaking over the substance of the issue, the Onisheri said he was brought into the issue when the artisans beseeched his Palace for his intervention after the Council Chairman began to give them problem. He said: "The artisans, represented by Alhaji Adefec, came to the Palace to tell me their plight. He told me how the Council Chairman, Prince Idris Balogun, had engaged them with a request for them to be paying royalties to him for their use of the Powerline space. But the artisans said they told him that since there is now a king in the Palace, they would rather pay that to the Palace if they would have to make any payment at all".

THE VIDEO CLUE OF ENGAGEMENT WITH THE ONISHERI

Asked if the artisans gave any proof to justify their claims of the demands by the Council Chairman, Oba Bello-Lawal said Prince Balogun rather made a statement confirming that to him when he sought to here his own side of the issue.

He said: "even if they (the artisans) did not give me any proof which I did not ask anyway, the Council Chairman also said it in his words that be made the request but the artisans refused to agree to his term. He told me that".

Asked if he had replied to the query? The Kabiyesi said: "Of course, I will reply to it even though the query is baseless and unfounded. It is necessary to do that even if it will serve the reality of showing the baseless content of it".

Asked if the query indicated being copied to the State Governor? He said: "I didn't see anything of such. So, it remains to be seen where the Council Chairman derived such authority from. But let's wait and watcb".

Kabiyesi had since feeded us back that he had replied to the query. He however refused to divulge the content for being official document as it were.

Civics Weekly investigations on the matter are still ongoing as the Executive Chairman had once denied "any arrest" of his aides" by the Lagos State Taskforce in spite of a viral video evidence showing some arrests. This claim of the Chairman, to this magazine in its culture ethics, is deemed to be true until our investigations reveal otherwise.