The Ondo State government says it has moved to ensure seamless succession in vacant stools and reduce litigations associated with chieftaincy matters.

Commissioner for Local Government Affairs and Chieftaincy Matters Amidu Takuro stated this at a news conference on Thursday in Akure.

Mr Takuro, who said there would be a public hearing on Monday on chieftaincy declarations for various stools and petitions, explained that the move was to allow peace to prevail in all communities.

The chieftaincy declaration is the law guiding each community in chieftaincy succession arrangements, including the number of ruling houses and kingmakers.

“These laws will determine the number of their ruling houses and their successor arrangements; they will also determine the number of their kingmakers.

“This will ensure that when a king passes away, there will be a seamless succession arrangement.

“In the absence of this, we’ve discovered that we’ve been having litigations upon litigations across the state.

“We, therefore, see it as our duty as a ministry to ensure that we do everything humanly possible to limit the number of litigations on chieftaincy matters in the state,” he stated.

The commissioner said the chieftaincy declaration committee had received over 50 proposals and 70 petitions to be analysed for deliberations during the public hearing.

He said the state government would not allow any traditional ruler or individual to undermine the government’s efforts to ensure peace reigned across the state.

“Government will not allow any traditional ruler or person to impose his view and interest on other communities,” said the commissioner.

He said the government had implemented measures to address issues on chieftaincy matters.

“The Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa-led administration has so much interest in the welfare and wellness of all traditional rulers in the state. We are backing them with all the necessary paraphernalia.

“In fact, the government has increased their monthly take-home to five per cent, and we are planning to give them cars. They are happy now, and we want to make them happier,” he said.

(NAN)