Two families, the royal family of Olaoye in Ushi-
Ekiti and the Oyenekan family are at loggerheads
over the circumcision of a 5-year-old girl,
Sunnewsonline reports...
The once rosy relationship between both
families has now turned sour following a
disagreement over the circumcision of their
5-year-old daughter.
Miss Olufunke Oyenekan, mother of the 5yr
old girl and fiancee to Emmanuel Olaoye, son
of the Olaoyes, a royal family in Ushi-Ekiti,
Ekiti State, had disagreed with the Olaoyes
over their decision to perform the traditional
circumcision rites on her daughter.
The woman, sensing that her husband’s family
wanted to perform the rites by all means, fled with
her child from the Olaoye’s family house in Ushi
Ekiti in 2012 and her whereabouts has since
remain unknown.
Recently, the Olaoye family again raised the alarm
through a representative, identified as Chief Olu
Olaoye over the sudden disappearance of Olufunke
and her daughter. The family said that their son’s
fiancee did not mean well for the family by
preventing them from performing the circumcision
rites on the child. Their explanation is that it is a
mandatory cultural practice to have all their
children circumcised, moreso that theirs is a royal
family whose duty it is to preserve the cultural
heritage of the people of Ushi Ekiti in order to set
an example for the people.
“She (Olufunke) is not helping us, neither is she
helping our daughter she has taken away. There
are certain cultural practices that we adhere to in
our land, some are avoidable while others are not.
This practice of circumcision is part of the
unavoidable ones. Olufunke cannot prevent us
from carrying out cultural and traditional rites on
our own blood. It is a must that we do the
circumcision rites for the girl. Moreso, that the
child is a princess, a daughter from the royal fami
ly of Ushi Ekiti and possibly a future regent!.
“We have told them (Olufunke’s family) that they
must ensure that they produce her because she
cannot prevent us from performing our traditional
duties. She must bring our daughter for the
circumcision rites, “ he said, fuming with anger.
Meanwhile, Olufunke has vowed not to allow
anyone, even if it is her husband, to carry out any
circumcision rites on her daughter. A member of
her family, who spoke to Sunday Sun on
condition of anonymity because of the sensitive
nature of the matter, said: “As for the Oyenekan
family, we have no problem with whatever the
Olaoye family wants to do with their daughter. In
our part of the world, it is the man who owns the
child and has the final say over him or her. But
our daughter, Olufunke is more western-oriented
than many of us. She has vowed not to allow any
circumcision for her daughter. She says the
practice might have an adverse effect on the girl
in the future. We would have been able to
intervene in the matter to ensure that peace reigns
but right now, I can swear to you that we do not
even know the whereabouts of Olufunke and her
child. In fact, we learnt that her older son has also
joined his mum where she was but we do not
have any idea of where that is. There was a time
she took refuge with their pastor in a church in
Abeokuta. The pastor assisted in getting the hu
man rights group to intervene for peaceful
resolution of the matter, but the fiance’ family
became violent about the matter, they wanted to
get their daughter by all means. We learnt that
Olufunke narrowly escaped the attack on her and
ran off with her daughter. We can only appeal to
our in-laws to exercise patience on this issue till
God makes Olufunke to come back, right now,
there is nothing anyone can do.”, the man said.
Speaking on phone to the Sunday Sun , Mr.
Emmanuel Olaoye, fiancé to Olufunke, narrated
how the trouble over the circumcision rites
started, his words: “My fiancée, Olufunke
Oyenekan and I met in February14,2006 and we
love each other but haven’t married legally. We
were co-habitting and eventually had two kids. A
boy and a girl.
“Things went on smoothly between us till I lost
my father who was a traditional ruler in Ushi Ekiti,
my home town. I received the message of the
death of our royal father and was told I had been
picked as his successor. So, I went home for the
burial rites and took my wife-to-be and our
children with me, actually to ensure that my
extended family get to know her. We travelled to
Ushi Ekiti in January 1,2012.
“However, we didn’t know that a shocker was
awaiting us at Ushi-Ekiti. My family demanded
that we submit our children for circumcision rites.
Funke, my wife-to-be, didn’t like this arrangement
at all. She didn’t particularly want our daughter,
who was then two years and four months old to
be circumcised as she said she didn’t like what
she experience as a woman who was circumcised
by her parents when she was young.
“But my people won’t be persuaded to spare our
daughter of the treatment because our tradition
forbids any of our blood not being administered
the circumcision rites.
“My fiancée has since fled with our daughter
since the disagreement in Ushi-Ekiti. As I’m going
to succeed my late father as the traditional ruler of
our town, it becomes more mandatory for my
children to be circumcised. Here in our land, it is
part of the prerequisites of a king-to-be to have
all his children circumcised. We really do not
have a choice here. But my fiancee sees the
practice as barbaric and outdated. She won’t have
any of it for our daughter. “ “That is why she ran
away with our daughter. Our son has also joined
her where she is. I want to believe her people
arranged her escape and know her whereabouts
but they are claiming ignorance of it. We once
heard she was in a pastor’s custody in one Bethel
Love Church in Abeokuta, Ogun State. My people
went there but she escaped from them and fled to
an unknown place with the children and hasn’t
been seen since then. I’m just confused about the
whole development, “ Olaoye said, wearing a
defeated, melancholy look.
Culled from Sun News
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