The stool of Alaafin of Oyo, a foremost Yoruba Monarch is currently vacant, with the passing of the forty-eight paramount ruler, Oba Lamidi Atanda Adeyemi 11 since February 23rd, 2002, aged eighty-two.
However, all efforts by the Oyomesi, the traditional Kingmakers to select a successor have always hit a rock.
It was gathered that the conflict between the Oyomesi and governor arose over who to announce as the 47th Alaafin of Oyo. While the Oyomesi preferred a certain younger candidate, the governor has his eyes firmly fixed on an elderly retired Clergy as the next Alaafin of Oyo.
Therefore, the Oyomesi, to avoid ‘unpalatable consequences’, according to a source close to a high ranking chief, has decided to approach the Judiciary to stop the Oyo State Governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde ‘from aborting the process for the selection/appointment of the candidate for filling the vacant stool of Alaafin of Oyo duly conducted by the kingmakers of Alaafin of Oyo Chieftaincy’.
The source disclosed to www.focusmagazineonline.com that towards this end, a suit with number HOY/38/2023 has been filed before the Oyo State High Court sitting in Oyo town.
The claimants in the suit, www.focusmagazineonline.com gathered are the five members of the Oyomesi, the kingmakers.
They are seeking a court injunction restraining the governor and his agents “from aborting the process for the selection/appointment of the candidate for filling the vacant stool of Alaafin of Oyo duly conducted by the kingmakers of Alaafin of Oyo Chieftaincy.”
The kingmakers who filed the suit are the Bashorun of Oyo, High Chief Yusuf Layinka; Lagunna of Oyo, High Chief Wakeel Oyedepo; Akinniku of Oyo, High Chief Amusa Yusuf; Areago Bashorun, Chief Wahab Oyetunji; and the Alapo of Oyo, Chief Gbadebo Mufutau.
Apart from Makinde, also listed as defendants in the suit are the Oyo State Attorney General, and the state’s Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.
The kingmakers explained that they had at a meeting on September 30, 2023, unanimously selected one Prince Lukuman Gbadegesin as the next Alaafin of Oyo to fill the ancient stool, which has become vacant since February last year, following the passing of Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, who was the 45th Alaafin of Oyo.
The kingmakers are praying the court to restrain the Oyo State Governor and his agents from nullifying the choice of Gbadegesin and “approving or recognising any other candidate” as the next Alaafin “after a duly conducted process for the filling of the vacant stool of Alaafin of Oyo in accordance with the native law, custom and Chieftaincy Declaration of Alaafin of Oyo Chieftaincy.”
The kingmakers also want the court to restrain the governor and the other defendants from removing them as Oyo kingmakers or “dissolving the Oyomesi in Council or appointing or selecting warrant chiefs to conduct or start a fresh process for the filling of the vacant stool of Alaafin of Oyo.”
They want the court to stop the defendants from “harassing, disturbing, preventing or stopping the claimants from carrying on their traditional functions and responsibilities as kingmakers of Alaafin of Oyo Chieftaincy.”
Meanwhile, www.focusmagazineonline.com gathered that based a petition by one of the aspirants to the throne of Alaafin, some members of the Oyo kingmakers were on October 18 invited and grilled by the operatives of the anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over allegations of bribery and financial inducements during the process of the selection of the new Alaafin.
It was gathered that the petitioner alleged that the kingmakers collected bribes running into millions of naira to favour a particular candidate, hence the decision of EFCC to summon them for questioning.
It was learnt that the kingmakers who honoured the EFCC invitation were accompanied by their lawyers and were asked to write statements, after which they were allowed to go.
No date, however, has been fixed for the hearing of the suit filed by the kingmakers.
Recalled www.focusmagazineonline.com had earlier posted a story on the tension being generated within Oyo town and outside over the stand-off in the selection of the new monarch.
Tension, anxiety currently enveloped the ancient town of Oyo, Oyo State, South West, Nigeria over the refusal of the Oyo State Government to announce the successor to the departed paramount monarch of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Atanda Adeyemi III, the Alaafin of Oyo.
www.focusmagazineonline.com recalled that the late paramount ruler, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi joined his ancestors in February 23, 2022. He was eighty three years.
Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III reigned for 51 years, which is the longest reign of any Alaafin of Oyo in known modern recorded history.
Following the transition of late Alaafin, Oba Adeyemi III, the head of the Oyomesi, Basorun of Oyo, High Chief Yusuf Akinade Ayoola, assumed the role of the regent to take over the affairs of the palace, pending the appointment of a new Alaafin.
Basorun, historically, has the final say on the nomination of a new Alaafin and his power rivalling the king himself.
According to history, the Oyo empire was a monarchical system which was headed by Alaafin, as the king.
However, an administrative council and governing body made up of chiefs, Oyomesi, serves to maintain a balance in power.
Members of Oyomesi were headed by a prime minister called Basorun which could request the king’s suicide by sending him a calabash of parrot’s eggs.
Basorun has the power to organise religious festivals in addition to becoming Commander in Chief of the Oyo Army which gave him tremendous independent religious authority.
But since the demise of the Oba Adeyemi III, www.focusmagazineonline.com learnt that all the processes for selection of a successor have been completed and forwarded to the State Government for announcement and proclamation.
One of the sixty five princes, who indicated their intention to occupy the vacant stool spoke with our Correspondent under strict confidentiality in Lagos last weekend. He was worried that the most important traditional institution of the ancient town of Oyo is being gradually eroded by ‘unnecessary politics’.
According to him, ‘I know they may not pick me. Not because I am not qualify. I am duly qualify. I have everything they may ask for. But I do not have any political godfather to learn on. No politician to push my case’, he lamented.
‘All what I want is for somebody qualified, capable, to be announced fast’, he believed this will calm the tension building up in the ancient town over the selection of a successor to Oba Adeyemi.
But in a twist, a document has suddenly emerged revealing the identity of whom the Oyo Mesi, a group of kingmakers, actually selected as the new Alaafin of Oyo.
The Oyo Mesi, a group of kingmakers in Oyo, according to the document, reportedly unanimously picked Prince Lukman Gbadegesin from the Agunloye Ruling House. His name was said to have been forwarded to the State Government since September last year.
The document, believed to be a proclamation document and a court judgment attached, was signed by the five living Oyo Mesi members and two warrant chiefs selected by the government to replace deceased Oyo Mesi members.
The proclamation reads, “We hereby proclaim Prince Lukman Adelodun Gbadegesin the new Alaafin.”
The kingmakers said they received a list of 82 aspiring princes from the Baba Iyaji of Oyo, the head of all princes, Mukaila Afonja.
As the proclamation shows, all the kingmakers signed for Mr Gbadegesin, whose grandfather, Alaafin Bello Gbadegesin Ladigbolu II, was the predecessor of the immediate past Alaafin Adeyemi III.
By Oyo tradition and the Alaafin Chieftaincy Declaration, Baba Iyaji is empowered to collect the names of aspiring princes from the next ruling house and transmit them to the Bashorun, the head of Oyo Mesi.
The Bashorun would then convene a meeting of the kingmakers to take a vote, and the prince, with a simple majority, is to be proclaimed Alaafin.
According to the law, an aspirant or the ruling house has 21 days to petition the government to challenge the selection. But no such petition was written.
However, after the expiration of the 21-day window, a prince, Hakeem Ladigbolu, approached the court to set aside the selection process.
But in a judgment given on December 19, 2023, an Oyo State High Court in Oyo Town, upheld the process leading to the selection of Gbadegesin, court papers show. But despite the proclamation by the Oyo Mesi and the court judgment upholding the process, the government has yet to make a formal stand.
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