Court sacks ooni of Ife’s second-in-command

A state high court in Osogbo, Osun state, has sacked Idowu Adediwura, obalufe of Ife, and ordered his replacement within 21 days.

Foluke Awolalu, a judge, gave the ruling on Wednesday.

Obalufe, the traditional prime minister of Ife, is next in rank to the ooni.

Abayomi Elugbuji, on behalf of himself and the Aga ruling house, had filed a suit challenging the installation of Adediwura.

In the suit, he argued that the installation of the sacked monarch was not in accordance with the provisions of Ife chieftaincy declaration of 1957.

While giving the judgement, Awolalu held that going by the Ife chieftaincy declaration, it was not the turn of Ajagbusiekun ruling house, where Adediwura hails from, to produce the obalufe.

She said it was the turn of Aga ruling house to fill the position, asking that Adediwura should restrain from parading himself as the Obalufe from henceforth.

The judge directed Ogunwusi to replace Adediwura with Elugbuji from the Aga ruling house within three weeks.

Babafemi Akande, Elugbuji’s counsel, described the judgment as “sound and clear”.

“The law is very clear, nobody is above the law and no one is below it. So, the judge gave the judgment in accordance with the dictates of the law,” he said.

This is the second major ruling affecting traditional rulers in the south-west in the last three weeks.

Last month, the supreme court sacked Samuel Adebayo-Adegbola, a monarch with the title “Eleruwa of Eruwa” in Oyo state.

The court had held that Adegbola was not a member of the ruling house whose turn was it to produce the successor of Bolanle Olaniyan, to the previous Eleruwa, who died in 1994.