Five of the kingmakers in Oyo town on Friday rejected the appointment and approval of Prince Abimbola Akeem Owoade as the new Alaafin of Oyo.
The Kingmakers – High Chief Yusuf Akínade, Basorun 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 in a letter signed by their lawyer, Adekunle Sobaloju (SAN), described the approval as “illegal and unlawful.”
According to them in the letter addressed to Governor Seyi Makinde, “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”.
Declaring the appointment of Prince Owoade as “null and void,” the kingmakers said they did not recommend Owoade’s name to the state government, insisting that the only person they put forward as the next Alaafin was Prince Lukman Gbadegesin.
“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”, they said.
The Kingmakers added, “Prince Lukman Adelodun Gbadegesin having obtained the majority of votes of the kingmakers present and voting was deemed accepted. 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 do 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,” .
In the letter, the kingmakers stressed, that they were surprised that in the government’s announcement, 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 Alaafin,” they said.
According to the kingmakers, “Under the Registered Alaafin of Oyo Chieftaincy Declaration of 1967, it is only the Basorun 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 Basorun 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, but unlawful, illegal, invalid, null and void.”