Makinde presents staff of office to Owoade as new Alaafin of Oyo

By Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja

Despite the controversies that have trailed his appointment, Oyo governor, Seyi Makinde, on Monday presented staff of office to Prince Abimbola Owoade as the new Alaafin of Oyo.

The Governor presented the staff of office and certificate to the new Alaafin at Agodi Government House in Ibadan.

Speaking at the event, Makinde vowed to prosecute kingmakers who allegedly received bribes in the process of selection of the Alaafin.

He also urged Owoade to unify Oyo people as he is ascending the throne.

The new Alaafin headed to Oyo where he is expected to be received by the sons and daughters of the town and commence his traditional rites for ascension to the throne.

The Oyo State Government had last Friday announced the appointment of Owoade as the new Alaafin of Oyo about three years after the death of former Alaafin, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III.

However, five of seven kingmakers of Oyo town rejected the appointment.

The kingmakers, in a letter signed by their lawyer, Adekunle Sobalolu, and addressed to Makinde, claimed they never recommended Owoade to the state government at any time.

They insisted the only person they recommended on Sept. 30, 2022, by the majority of the kingmakers’ lawful votes as the next Alaafin, was Prince Lukman Gbadegesin.

The five kingmakers are the Bashorun of Oyo, High Chief Yusuf Layinka; the Lagunna of Oyo, High Chief Wakeel Oyedepo, and the Akinniku of Oyo, High Chief Hamzat Yusuf.

“Prince Lukman Adelodun Gbadegesin, having obtained the majority of votes of the kingmakers present, 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, which culminated in the present appeal at the Court of Appeal,” they said.

They also said they were surprised the government claimed in its announcement that Owoade’s 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.

“This 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,” they said.

The kingmakers said the meeting held at the Governor’s Office or elsewhere on Thursday to select the governor’s preferred candidate was unlawful and illegal.

“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,” said the kingmakers.

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