Ondo Community Suspends Festival as Chief Priest-designate Rejects Title
The ancient town of Ileoluji in Ileoluji/ Okeigbo local council of Ondo State has suspended its annual Owe Festival.
Disclosing this to newsmen at the weekend, the family head for the Owe Ancestral Bearers, Chief Francis Akinterinwa, said the family regrettably took the decision to suspend this year’s celebration, to avert the wrath of the gods.
According to him, the action was caused by the intransigence of one of the family members, Rotimi Akinterinwa, whom the gods had chosen as the Owe chief priest but rejected the title.
The Owe festival, otherwise known as the new yam festival, is marked every July to herald the harvest of the new yam.
“What Rotimi has done is highly sacrilegious; and an embarrassment not only to our family but to the community at large.
“I am just arriving from the palace of the Kabiyesi (traditional ruler) now, where the royalty, in the presence of the community chief priest, ordered me to announce to the whole world that we are suspending this all-important festival.
“As the chief priest-designate for the Owe Shrine, Rotimi is supposed to lead in this year’s festival; but to the shock of everyone, he turned down the statutory duty because of his so-called Christian faith,” a septuagenarian Akinterinwa lamented.
He said Rotimi’s action would not be taken lightly as it was a deliberate attempt to destroy the laid-down tradition of the community.
“Now, the young man is nowhere to be found, as he has gone into hiding. But for how long will he continue to hide, and for how long will a whole community continue to wait, to eat the new yam?” He asked rhetorically.
He noted that Rotimi’s action had dire implications for him and for everyone in the community, thus necessitating the use of force, if need be, for him to accept the chief priest title.
“The truth is that, if he fails to accept the title, he runs the risk of running mad; while the entire community too runs the risk of witnessing various tragedies.
“That is why he must take up the title,” Akinterinwa affirmed.
Views: 48