by Oladeinde Olawoyin
Sometime in July 2010, the Alaafin of Oyo Oba Lamidi Atanda Adeyemi and former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala were locked in a mortal combat. The unifying subject? Death.
Alaafin Adeyemi alleged that Akala connived with the Commanding Officer of the Special Anti-robbery Squad SCID, Oyo, to terminate his life in his palace on the pretext that they were investigating a murder case. Alao-Akala and the Police denied the claim.
The subtext of the kerfuffle? Ahead of the 2011 elections, Alao-Akala had fallen out with Alaafin whom he knew threw Lamidi Adedibu because, well, Alaafin chose to support then ACN candidate, Abiola Ajimobi.
Alao-Akala’s battle with Alaafin was just one of his many wars with power brokers across the state, including top industrialist Alhaji Abdul’azeez Arisekola.
He was also locked in a royal rumble with Olubadan Odulana Odugade and his prominent chiefs (Baba Omowaye Kuye, Hajji Sulaiman Omiyale, and to some degree, Hajji Saliu Adetunji). Olubadan once locked Akalaa out of the palace, a development that frustrated Baba Dejo Raimi, an Ibadanman and prominent Akala ally.
Akala also had a running battle with Soun of Ogbomoso, Ogbomoso Oba Jimoh Oyewumi Ajagungbade 111, and he reportedly abused the monarch thoroughly at his thanksgiving ceremony shortly after he lost power in 2011.
In any case, as a means of getting back to Alaafin shortly after he lost to Ajimobi, Akala disrupted the Council of Obas and Chiefs’ status quo by stripping the Alaafin of his permanent chairmanship seat.
He prevailed on the Oyo State House of Assembly to amend the law governing the traditional institution and made Alaafin, who was the Chairman of the council, to share the title with the Soun of Ogbomoso and Olubadan of Ibadan. It was a booby trap for Ajimobi.
What’s surreal about this whole jabberwocky? All of these characters are now united by the Grim Reaper – Death!
Lamidi Adedibu died in June 2008; Arisekola died in June 2014; Dejo Raimi died in July 2014; Olubadan Odugade died in January 2016; Baba Kuye and Chief Omiyale both died within two weeks in 2015; Abiola Ajimobi died in June 2020; Alao-Akala died in January 2022; Soun of Ogbomoso died in December 2021; Baami Olubadan Adetunji died in 2022;
And now, Alaafin of Oyo finally “transited” hours ago.
It’s the end of a most intriguing era. Adieu.