King makers of the Alaafin of Oyo are set to deploy legal means to upturn the installation of Canada-based Prince Abimbola Akeem Owoade as the new Alaafin by Governor Seyi Makinde, while insisting that the governor’s action is a nullity that can never stand the test of time
By Lukmon Ojerinde
Dimeji Fabiyi represents the Oyo Prominent Sons in the media, a group of men who are opposed to the coronation of Prince Abimbola Akeem Owoade as the new Alaafin of Oyo, the paramount ruler of Oyo Kingdom in Oyo State, South west Nigeria. Fabiyi and his group are miffed that amidst protestation from the Oyomesi, the traditional body charged with the responsibility of selection and/or election of the Alaafin of Oyo, the governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde defiantly imposed Owoade on the embattled kingdom.
Speaking on Arise Television News Night on Tuesday, January 14, 2025, Fabiyi stressed that the selection of the new Alaafin of Oyo had placed a moral burden on the Oyo State governor which he would live with for the rest of his life. According to Fabiyi, the presentation of the Staff of Office to Owoade by governor Makinde on Monday, January 13, 2025 was a brazen violation of the laws of traditional institution, as the process of selecting Owoade was flawed.
Speaking further, Fabiyi gave an indication that the kingmakers may deploy legal means to dethrone Owoade and install their legitimately selected Alaafin when he said, “We have Alaafin-elect duly selected by the Oyomesi. Governor Seyi Makinde should reverse his selection because it is not going to stand”.
The selection of a new Alaafin of Oyo has been mired in controversy since two years ago when the last occupant of the stool, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi the third passed on. But governor Makinde had on Friday, January 10, 2025 approved the appointment of Prince Owoade the next Alaafin of Oyo.
As Owoade received the Staff of Office from Governor Makinde, tongues have still been wagging as to why the selection process was so controversial and unnecessarily prolonged.
Though the same scenario played out in 1970 when Prince Lamidi Adeyemi, the successor to Alaafin Gbadegesin Ladigbolu 11 was announced by the defunct Western Region, no one in his wildest imagination thought the road to one of the foremost traditional stools, could be so chaotic, rough and bumpy.
The Alaafin stool was vacant for almost three years after Oba Adeyemi joined his ancestors.
After the approval of the new Alaafin, the Oyo State Government moved swiftly to present the instrument of office to the new monarch.
The presentation, which took place at the Executive Chamber of the Governor’s Office, Oyo State Secretariat, Ibadan, was not given much publicity.
While alluding to allegations that money exchanged hands among the kingmakers, who did the initial nomination of Prince Gbadegesin and presented same to him, Makinde vowed that he would not sit by and watch the stool of Alaafin commercialized.
The governor went further to say that he would ensure that anyone found culpable of collecting bribes in the selection process would be punished.
However, the governor gave the Oyomesi an option if they don’t want to be prosecuted when he said,
“Let me also say briefly that those that are still hell-bent on destabilising the traditional institution in Oyo, the government is not letting down. We will prosecute them. The money they collected; they will still be prosecuted except they go to Kabiyesi. If he forgives them, I will also forgive them.
“The Alaafin stool is very important not just to Oyo Town or Oyo State but the entire Yoruba race. So, under my watch, I made it very clear that the stool would not be for sale. It is not a stool for us to toy with.
“From today, we have an Alaafin. I congratulate the Alaafin of Oyoland, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Akeem Abimbola Owoade. I pray that your reign shall bring unity to Yoruba race wherever they may be around the world.”
Many of the kingmakers, however, had alleged discrepancy in the process by which Makinde anointed Owoade. But to prove that he was very transparent in the selection process, he explained that he had only met Owoade a day before the presentation of the Staff of Office to him.
Makinde said, “I met Prince Owoade for the first time in my life yesterday. I never spoke to him in my entire life until yesterday. I did not know his profile or the profile of any of the princes vying for the stool and it was deliberate because I did not want my opinion to influence the process.
“Let me say this clearly; when we came in 2019, we had challenges with the traditional institution in Ibadanland and it has been resolved to everybody’s satisfaction.
“When it was time for us to approve the selection of Okere, some people came to me and said: ‘This is our friend’. They said one person is APC and I said it does not mean anything to me whether you are PDP or APC. Why should my decision be based on political considerations? So, I approved the selection of the Saki kingmakers.
“I always tell people not to kill themselves over politicians, because we see ourselves in the night. We go to each other’s houses. Politics, electioneering is a game. It’s only when you have been elected, then governance becomes a serious business because you will make decisions that will affect millions of people. So, we will not play politics with governance.
“The Alaafin stool became vacant in 2022. We were moving towards the election and people said, you have to approve the appointment of Alaafin, otherwise, Oyo people would not vote for you. I said the people should not vote for me but that I would do what was right and Oyo voted for me massively. Oyo will continue to support me. The coronation would be in four weeks”
In another development, it was rumoured that in an unprecedented move, the state government reportedly sought the services of Professor Wande Abimbola, the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ife and the head of all Ifa oracle diviners to ask Ifa Oracle which of the aspirants he preferred.
In a recent viral video, Prof Abimbola was heard saying that the Oyo State government contacted him on the divination process.
According to the Ifa diviner, the Oyo State Governor called him to ask Ifa who the right choice would be. The Professor of Yoruba explained the rigour he went through before picking the new Alaafin.
Abimbola said, ”I spent ten days seeking the face of Ifá oracle and Ifá made its choice. Ifá chose Prince Owoade.”
The Ifa representative also alleged that the Oyo kingmakers tried to persuade him to stick to their initial nomination to which he said no.
The choice of the 47-year-old Prince Owoade, as the new Alaafin of Oyo, has been generating mixed reactions, especially among the contestants and the kingmakers, popularly known as the Oyomesi.
The legal representative of the kingmakers, Adekunle Sobaloju (SAN), in a letter to the governor, expressed displeasure, stating that since there was a pending court case, the decision to announce Owoade was a disregard to the judiciary.
As some of the kingmakers have remained embittered and expressed their position through their legal representatives, investigation by this medium revealed that some of the contestants for the stool are equally livid, describing the “rush and shoddy process through which the governor settled for Prince Owoade, as questionable and not transparent.
Counsel to the Oyomesi disclosed that 82 aspirants were interviewed on September 30, 2022, with the kingmakers unanimously appointing Prince Lukman Adelodun Ayinla Gbadegesin as the new Alaafin.
The kingmakers had also forwarded Gbadegesin’s name to the governor for approval as the new Alaafin, which they claimed Governor Makinde refused to approve. This prompted a legal action from the kingmakers to stop the government until the governor made a presentation of the Staff of Office to Owoade.
On his part, the Media Adviser to Makinde, Dr Sulaimon Olanrewaju, argued that the government followed due process before appointing Owoade. He also said the Oyomesi did not follow due process when they forwarded Gbadegesin’s name to the governor.
Olanrewaju stated that, “The first one did not follow the due process. But the latest one followed the due process. That was why the governor approved the latest selection by Oyomesi.”
Meanwhile, nine royal families in Oyo, have mounted opposition against the presentation of staff of office to Owoade as the 46th Alaafin of Oyo, insisting that recognizing him without going through seclusion is not in tandem with the tradition of the ancient city.
In a statement by Prince Sina Afolabi representing the Adeitan Royal Family, the nine families argued that Prince Owoade’s appointment went against Oyo’s customs, culture, and traditions, and also violated the Rule of Law.
Notably, the families which are opposed to the appointment of the new monarch include Prince Remi Azeez, (Tella Okitipapa), Prince Lamola Olanite (Olanite), Prince Agboin Adelabu, (Adelabu), Prince Raji Adeniran (Adeniran), Prince Nureni Taiwo (Tella Agbojulogun), Prince Muftau Adesokan, (Adesokan Baba Idode), Prince Adesiyan (Adesiyan) and Prince Bello Rasheed (Abidekun).
Afolabi, who spoke on behalf of the other families, pointed out that the choice of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Eniitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi was done by the custom and tradition of Ife.
According to him, “What the governor did was against the highly revered Alaafin Stool. His action has reduced the throne to an object of ridicule. It was expected of Governor Makinde, an apostle of due process, to have followed a just line of action and avoid reducing the Alaafin Stool or the Alaafin to an ordinary oba without honour.
“We don’t want our revered stool or the Alaafin to become an object of ridicule and mockery in the future. We don’t want him to be referred to as an oba that was anointed in Ibadan, precisely at the Office of the Governor. We don’t want people to refer to him as an Alaafin who did not enter Ipebi (seclusion).
“The Alaafin of Oyo is a prominent and first-class traditional ruler in Yorubaland. We, the Atiba 9, are against the process embarked upon by the state government to make Omooba Owoade the Alaafin. It should be stopped and the right thing must be done in appointing a new Alaafin.
“We don’t have anything personal against Omooba Owoade who was appointed as the Alaafin on Monday. He too made efforts to become the oba. We don’t have any personal issues with Omooba Lukman Gbadegesin either.
“However, our grouse is against the process through which Owoade and Gbadegesin emerged as candidates to the Alaafin Stool. And what Governor Makinde had done by making Omooba Owoade the Alaafin is an attempt to ridicule the throne. We, the Atiba nine, don’t want it.
“We are not against whoever is appointed as the Alaafin but the process must be by our established custom, culture and tradition and the rule of law. Whoever that emerged through such a process will be acceptable to us.”
Another five Oyo town kingmakers and their preferred candidate for the Alaafin stool, Prince Gbadegesin, on Wednesday, 15 January, 2025 issued Governor Makinde a 30-day ultimatum to reverse the appointment of Akeem Owoade as the Alaafin or face a fresh legal action.
The ultimatum was contained in a letter dated January 14, 2025, written to Makinde by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Kunle Sobaloju, on behalf of Gbadegesin.
In another letter, also dated January 14, 2025, written by Sobaloju on behalf of the five kingmakers, they warned Makinde to refrain from maligning them by alleging bribery in the selection process for the Alaafin of Oyo.
They described Makinde’s resort to media attack on them as “unwarranted and unbecoming of the high standards expected of Your Excellency’s office.”
They cautioned the governor against crossing the line of defamation, stating that, “Please recognise that you remain liable to prosecution for the defamatory acts committed by you in office, for which you may be held accountable after your period of immunity is over.”
The aggrieved kingmakers are the Basorun of Oyo, High Chief Yusuf Ayoola; Laguna of Oyo, High Chief Wakeel Akindele; Akinniku of Oyo, High Chief Hamzat Yusuf; warrant chief standing in for Asipa of Oyo, Chief Wahab Oyetunjii; warrant chief standing in for Alapinni of Oyo, Chief Gbadebo Mufutau.
