Oba Olufemi Ogunleye
Traditional Rulers and high chiefs in Owu Kingdom, Abeokuta, have just completed a 3-Day intensive training in ADR skills, to prepare them as Mediators in civil disputes in the kingdom.
Following the decision to establish a Mediation Centre in Owu Palace, Abeokuta where civil disputes will be adjudicated, Oba Professor Saka Adelola Matemilola, has engaged the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC) to train some Owu traditional rulers and Chiefs pas potential neutrals for the task.
Oba Olufemi Ogunleye, Towulade Akinale, a Chartered Mediator and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Mediators and Conciliators who is currently running a Mediation Centre in Akinale is at the head of traditional rulers and high chiefs in the training program.
Tha participants were exposed to the dynamics of Alternative Dispute Resolution which encompasses Conciliation, Negotiation, Arbitration and Mediation, among others, with focus on their advantages against litugation which besides its inflexibility, rigidity and expensiveness, is an antithesis to relationship.
Oba Matemilola announced that a Mediation Centre would be established at the Owu Palace where all civil disputes ranging from family, chieftaincy, land and other inter and intra personal conflicts would be adjudicated in line with the principles of Mediation, adding the trainees are neutrals who, by the norm, are no judges but third party helpers to find solutions to the lingering disputes.
The NSCDC Resource persons lead by the Deputy Commander Amos Ajayi drilled the participants in Conflict Dynamics, ADR Spectrum, Emotional Intelligence, Conflicts Analysis, Communication and Mediation as well as Professional Ethics and Code of conduct for Mediators.
