Olubadan throne: Families in court over successor

Barely 48 hours after the demise of late Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Samuel Odulana, Odugade I, another acclaimed chieftaincy line in Ibadan, the Seriki clan, has asked an Ibadan court to stop the Oyo State Government and the Olubadan-in-Council from installing the Balogun of Ibadan, High Chief Saliu Adetunji, as the next Olubadan of Ibadan land.

Head of the Seriki line, Chief Adebayo Oyediji, and five others on Tuesday, filed a motion seeking an order compelling the government and the Olubadan-in-Council to install Oyediji as the next Olubadan.

Oyediji, 89, and others based their prayer on a 1989 Supreme Court judgment which ordered recognition of the Seriki as the third line to produce the Olubadan.

According to him and the motion filed by his lawyer, A.G. Adeniran, before the Oyo state Chief Judge, Justice Mukthar Abimbola, the Olubadan -in-Council had, since 1989 when the Seriki line obtained a Supreme Court judgment in their favour, denied them the opportunity of being admitted into the Olubadan line.

The businessman alleged corruption and disregard for rule of law on the part of the Olubadan -in-Council. He said he was the next to be installed Olubadan based on the said judgment.

The motion will be heard on January 28.

According to him, the alleged marginalisation of the Seriki line began since the last Otun Seriki, Chief Adisa Akinloye, was denied the opportunity before he died in 2007.

He said that Seriki House was the third line in the chieftaincy of Olubadan, adding that upon the denial, the Supreme Court in 1989 ordered that Seriki line be included as the third line to the appointment of Olubadan.

Oyediji claimed that the problem with the Seriki line started with the making of the 1959 Ekerin Balogun of Ibadan Chieftaincy Declaration which put ‎Seriki under the Ekerin Balogun of Ibadan and provided for the first time that Seriki can only be promoted to Ekerin Balogun only if there are two simultaneous vacancies occurring in the Ashipa and Ekerin Balogun titles.

He further explained that ‎upon winning against the then Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Oloyede Asanke and all the Chiefs in Balogun and Olubadan line, after challenging the said chieftaincy declaration, the Olubadan then prevailed on the Seriki chiefs not to insist on three lines for the Olubadan chieftaincy, but rather chiefs in the Seriki line should cross to Ekerin Balogun and Ekerin Olubadan on the two lines whenever there is a vacancy in any of the two lines.

According to him, the out-of-court agreement was that the Balogun and Olubadan lines would each have two steps of promotion from Ekarun to Ekerin in their respective lines before the Seriki line shall have its own promotion to Ekerin in any of the two lines.

Having being denied the opportunity for long, and following the consecutive deaths of high chiefs Sulaimon Omiyale and Omowale Kuye from both sides in November and December last year, Chief Oyediji said that it was the time of Seriki to have a shot at the Olubadan, stressing: “When the agreement was reached, the late Odulana was the only senior ranking high chief in the Olubadan line and we were in the same rank. If that agreement was followed, I am the next person to succeed him.”

In the new motion filed by his lawyer, Adeniran, dated 19/01/2016 marked I/421/07 seeking an amendment to reflect the earlier order of the court, he sought a declaration that “by the provision of the consent judgment delivered by the high court in suit No. I/313/88, it is the turn of the claimants to produce the next Olubadan of Ibadan on both the Olubadan line and the Balogun line”.

He also sought the order of the court “setting aside the purported appointments made by the 1st defendant (Oba Odulana) to fill vacancies existing in the chieftaincy titles of Ekerin Olubadan, Ashipa Olubadan, Osi Olubadan, Otun Olubadan and Balogun Olubadan of Ibadan since the 21st of November, 2008 up till the last appointment he made on the 1st of January, 2016”.

Oyediji also called for an order “setting aside the purported approval granted by the Governor of a Oyo state on the 5th of January, 2016 or thereabout to the appointments made by the 1st defendant on the 1st of January, 2016 to fill vacancies existing in the chieftaincy titles”.