GOVERNOR Seyi Makinde’s approval of Prince Abimbola Owoade as the new Alaafin of Oyo has steered the anger of the kingmakers in the ancient kingdom, the Oyomesi.
A statement signed by the Oyo State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Prince Dotun Oyelade, yesterday had declared that Prince Owoade, after thorough consultations and divinations, was recommended by the Oyomesi and approved by the Oyo State governor.
A statement to that effect, he said, had been issued by the Honourable Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Ademola Ojo, who declared that the announcement had put to rest all the social and legal bickerings that had ensued since the demise of the immediate past Alaafin, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, on April 22, 2022.
But in a letter they addressed to Governor Makinde yesterday, the kingmakers described the governor’s appointment of Prince Owoade as the new Alaafin as illegal and unlawful.
The kingmakers also declared the appointment null and void because they did not recommend such a name to the state government.
They insisted that the only person they recommended as the next Alaafin was Prince Luqman Gbadegesin.
The kingmakers in the letter to the governor, signed by their legal representative Adekunle Sobaloju (SAN), include High Chief Yusuf Akínade, Bashorun of Oyo; High Chief Wakeel Akindele, Lagunna of Oyo; High Chief Hamzat Yusuf, Akinniku of Oyo; Chíef Wahab Oyetunji, warrant chief stand-in for Asipa of Oyo, and Chief Gbadebo Mufutau, warrant chief stand-in for Alapinní of Oyo.
The letter reads: “You will recall that on 30th September, 2022 at the meeting of the Kingmakers in accordance with the Alaafin of Oyo Chieftaincy Declaration, 1961, the Kingmakers appointed Prince Lukman Adelodun Gbadegesin as the Alaafin of Oyo by majority of the lawful votes of the Kingmakers.
“Prince Lukman Adelodun Gbadegesin, having obtained the majority of votes of the Kingmakers present and voting was deemed appointed and his name was forwarded to your Excellency as the candidate appointed by the Kingmakers as Alaafin of Oyo for your approval, which you refused to approve for no disclosed reason at all.
“The Kingmakers thereafter filed an action to stop your excellency from truncating the process, culminating in the present appeal at the Court of Appeal.”
The kingmakers said they were surprised that in the announcement made by the government, it claimed that the selection was made after wide consultation and divination.
“We must emphatically state that the Alaafin is not chosen by consultation or divination but in strict compliance with the Registered Alaafin of Oyo Chieftaincy Declaration of 1967, which codifies the native law and custom governing the selection process for the vacant stool of the Alaafin.
“Under the Registered Alaafin of Oyo Chieftaincy Declaration of 1967, it is only the Bashorun of Oyo, the head of the Oyomesi and Kingmakers that can summon a meeting of the Kingmakers for the purpose of selecting a candidate to fill the vacant stool of the Alaafin of Oyo.
“In this instance, the Bashorun did not summon any such meeting, nor was there any meeting convened in the Alaafin’s palace, as custom demands, where the said Prince Abimbola Akeem Owoade was selected or appointed as the new Alaafin.
“Any meeting of few kingmakers and emergency warrant chiefs held at the Governor’s office on the 9th of January, 2025 or elsewhere at the instance of the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, to select the preferred candidate of the Governor as the new Alaafin is not only contrary to the native law and custom and Chieftaincy Declaration of Alafin of Oyo Chieftaincy but unlawful, illegal, invalid, null and void.
“It is not the duty of the Governor to convene the meeting of few kingmakers and emergency warrant chiefs to select or appoint a new Alaafin on the 9th of January, 2025 and hurriedly approve the appointment on the 10th of January, 2025.”
The statement earlier issued by Hon. Ademola Ojo had called on all citizens of Oyo State to join the government in celebrating “this momentous occasion” and lend their support to the new Alaafin of Oyo.
The commissioner prayed that the new Alaafin’s reign would bring peace, prosperity and unity to the historic Oyo Kingdom.