Linus Oota, Lafia
The fresh crisis has begun rocking the Lafia Emirate Council over the planned selection of a new Emir of Lafia to fill the vacant position.
The Emir of Lafia, Late Dr Isa Mustapha Agwai 1, died on January 10, 2019, in Abuja after a protracted illness and was buried the next day at the Emir’s palace in Lafia.
The selection committee had earlier excluded a particular ruling house – the Musa Gana Ruling House – from participating in the contest for the selection of a new Emir.
A petition made available to newsmen in Lafia and signed by the head of the ‘Musa Gana Ruling House, Mohammadu Jibril Mamman Ladi and 25 other stakeholders of the Emirate Council, urged the state government not to exclude the Musa Gana Ruling House in the selection process of the new Emir of Lafia.
The petitioner traced the history of the Lafia Emirate Council from 1804-1809 when Dunama emerged up to Musa Gana’s time who rose from Makama of Lafia and ascended the throne as the 5th Emir of Lafia and served between 1844 and 1849.
“We hereby contended that we will not accept any attempt to exclude the Musa Gana Ruling House from the contest for the stool of the Emir of Lafia.
“Available records show that on various occasions in the past, Musa Gana Ruling House produced candidates for contest whenever the stool was vacant; now that the stool is vacant, we have competent male descendants of Musa Gana Ruling House who have indicated interest to contest for the stool on the basis of being an established ruling house like the other four.
“The other four includes Dunama, Musa Dan Jaji, Umar Sanda as well as Lamino,” he said
The petition said that the purported 1983 gazette which only recognises Ari Dunama and Dallas Dunama as the only ruling houses eligible to participate in the contest for the stool of the Emir of Lafia was unjust, invalid and unpopular as it was the product of the findings of an administrative commission of inquiry specially set up to serve parochial interest.
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