Naomi Silekunola, the estranged queen of the Ooni of Ife, who is currently held at Agodi prison following the stampede that resulted in the deaths of 35 children in Ibadan, Oyo State, has reportedly gone on a hunger strike, according to her mother, Mrs. Funmilayo Ogunseyi.
Mrs Ogunseyi, who disclosed this in an interview with PUNCH, noted that when she visited her daughter on Thursday at the custodial centre, she wasn’t feeling fine.
“She wasn’t happy about the whole incident. She loves children. The queen loves and helps children, single mothers, old women, and widows. She is still in pain that those children lost their lives because her intention was pure.”
The queen’s mother explained that organising such kind of event to help people was what Naomi had been doing for years.
“She used to buy clothes for children at Christmas. She has emaciated in the custodial facility. She has refused to eat.
“When I was there yesterday (Thursday), I persuaded her. She still did not eat. The place was not comfortable for her. She was sad about the children losing their lives.”
Mrs Ogunseyi appealed to Nigerians for intervention, noting that the incident was not intentional and was no way meant to kill anybody.
“We are just begging everybody. We’re begging Nigerians to help us. The people should help us beg Governor Seyi Makinde to intervene in the matter. That’s all I need. We are also appealing to all Nigerians to help us beg the parents who lost their children at the event. We’re sorry. It was not intentional. We did not mean to kill anybody.”
Regretting the whole incident, the Queen’s mother said that she was ready to visit families of those people who lost their children and talk to them and sympathise with them.
“I am a mother, and I know what it means (to lose a child). I know how it feels,” she said begging for clemency on her daughter.
Given some details of the matter, she said: “The queen is the brain behind the programme aimed at helping Nigerians. She has a foundation. With her foundation, she has helped women not only in need of material things or foodstuff but also those who needed guidance and support. Basically, my daughter runs a non-governmental organisation.
“She has been using this NGO to help the less privileged. She has organised this kind of funfair in different cities in the country, and she has been going from one town or city to another to celebrate the end of the year with children. She has done this in Akure, Ondo town, Ile Oluji, and many other places. So, this year, she decided to bring it down to Ibadan.”
She added, “In all the events she had organised in the past, she always spoke to people on the ground in the town. These were the people who would tell her the necessary things to do. She could not do it alone and would approach people in the city or town to help in the organisation of the funfair. The same thing was applicable in the Ibadan funfair.
“As of the time she was planning for Ibadan funfair, some of her team members told her about Agidigbo FM. The queen was told about Mr Hamzat Oriyomi who would help to publicise the event. The reason was that she had not organised such an event in Ibadan before. They had never met before.
“We had earlier gotten a place in Moniya for the event, but Mr Oriyomi advised that the place was too small. That was how we got the venue we used at the Islamic High School, Basorun. It was a help that he rendered because he even paid for the place by himself.
“From our observation, the place was spacious enough to accommodate what we envisaged. We had held programmes in schools before; so, we agreed to use the venue Mr Oriyomi suggested. As I stated earlier, in all the events we had organised, including a teens’ crusade we had some years back, there was no casualty.”
She further stated that on the eve of the event, when the queen came to Ibadan, she met with Mr Oriyomi for the first time. “She appreciated him for his effort in securing the venue of the event as well as the publicity. Unfortunately, on the day of the event, my phone was ringing with calls to make enquiries.
“They put my number on the flier of the event. People started calling me at around 4.30am. I was wondering why people called me at that time. They were asking if the event had been cancelled. I told them that the event would still be held.
“By 6.30am, I began to hear the news that the place was overcrowded. I was told that the premises had been filled up with the crowd. Some people were throwing their children over the fence. All of these led to the stampede which occurred.
“When we heard about this news, my daughter went to a police station to report the matter. We called the police, we called the army, and we called other security agents to inform them about the incident.
“Meanwhile, on the eve of the event, four security men came with us from Akure. We even asked the two of them to go to the field and sleep over there, because of the people who were decorating the venue. We also had two bouncers. It was at the station that my daughter was interrogated.
“We were thinking she would go back home but unfortunately, she was detained. Then, she was taken to the court. However, we were not informed the previous day that she would be taken to court the next day. Our lawyer wasn’t aware.
“So, that morning, we were told that they wanted to arraign her. She was taken to the magistrate’s court. At the magistrate’s court, the magistrate could not grant her bail because only the High Court would be able to grant her bail. The magistrate asked that the three of them: the queen, Mr Oriyomi, and the principal of the school be taken to the custodial facility.”
