... As indigenes stage solidarity rally

Not until judges across the country resume from their vacations in September and until the Ilorin Division of the Federal Court of Appeal’s order deposing the Oloffa of Offa resumes hearing in the Supreme Court and subsequently disposed of, the Oloffa of Offa, Oba Mufutau Gbadamosi Esuwoye II, will remain on the throne.

Sunday Mirror learnt this last Tuesday in the ancient town of Offa in Kwara State when the sons and daughters of the town from far and near, including those in the diaspora, thronged the town to express their solidarity with the traditional ruler.

Not only that, the palace has been the centre of preaching since the Ramadan fast began.

The Appeal Court had earlier in a unanimous judgement on an appeal filed by the Olugbense Ruling House against the ruling of a High Court, upholding the selection, appointment and installation of Oloffa, praying that it be cancelled and their own candidate, Prince AbdulRauf Adegboyega Keji be installed in his stead. The appellate court in its counter judgement had among others in the appeal suit no. CA/IL/71/2012, through a lead judgement read by Hon Justice Hussain Mukhtar restrained Oba Esuwoye from parading himself anymore as the Oloffa of Offa and as well ordered the Attorney General of Kwara State and the Governor to install Prince Abdulrauf Adegboyege Keji as the new Oloffa.

The judges held the evidences of the appellants (the Olugbense Ruloing House and Prince Adegboyega Keji) and also granted all their 16 reliefs which include the cancellation of the appointment and installation of Oba Esuwoye at the time it was done. The court held that it believed the claim of the Olugbense ruling house that the ascension to the stool of Oloffa of Offa is by rotation between the Olugbense and Anilerin Ruling Houses and has been established since 1969.

The judgement read in part: "The rotation principle has been established since 1969 when the late Oba Keji from the Olugbense Ruling House agreed to step down from the throne and allowed the late Oba Mustapha Olawore Olanipekun from the Anilerin Ruling House to ascend the throne in order to allow peace to reign in Offa. This was after the intervention of the government."

The Olugbense House had among others prayed the court to declare that Adegboyega Keji is the validly and duly nominated candidate to the stool of Olofa of Offa and entitled to be appointed and installed the Oloffa. They also prayed for the nullification of the appointment and installation of Esuwoye with a perpetual injunction to restrain him from parading himself as the Oloffa of Offa while Keji be installed instead.

However, in quick response, the Oloffa, Oba Esuwoye and his Ruling House (Anilelerin) as respondents, filed a notice of appeal in the Supreme Court in Abuja and a notice of a stay of execution of the Appeal Court judgement. The monarch had in the appeal to the apex court filed by his solicitors, Lawal Rabana & Co, been asking that the kingmakers of Offa, Prince Adegboyeha Keji, who was asked to be installed king in his stead by the Court, the Attorney General of Kwara State and the Governor be restrained from executing the appellate court judgement yet.

He was seeking three reliefs from the court to wit; an order setting aside the judgement of the Court of Appeal, Ilorin Division delivered on July 9, 2013 which nullified his selection, appointment and installation as the Oloffa of Offa. He was also praying for "an order of the Supreme Court allowing his appeal as well as any further order or orders that the apex court may deem fit to make in the circumstances." He had argued in his grounds of appeal that the appellate court erred in its judgement "when it held that the ascendancy to the stool of Oloffa of Offa is rotational between the Anilelerin and Olugbense ruling houses by expunging exhibits ‘G’,’O’,’P’,’Q’,’R’ and ‘S’ before it". Similarly, he claimed that "the court erred by expunging exhibits ‘J’ and ‘DFC2’" which are the government positions to the nomination, selection and appointment of an Oloffa which the respondents did not oppose to thereby occasioning a miscarriage of justice in the matter.

Also, the Oba said the Appeal Court erred when it held that a purported ‘curse’ on the males of Olugbense family by their progenitors from further ascending to the throne of Oloffa of Offa "is unfair and repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience when same was not the case put forward by the claimants".

No date has been fixed for hearing of the appeal because judges across the country are still on vacation.

However, in Offa last Tuesday, Sunday Mirror spoke with a spectrum of stakeholders on the stool and the contending rotation between the two ruling houses of Olugbense and Anilelerin. The council of Offa princes and princesses who offered to speak with our reporter as a body went historical to prove their claims. Speaking through the trio of the Chairman of Princes, Mustapha Adebisi Babalola and his deputy, Ganiyu Oyewale as well as a 120-year-old Prince Salami Okunlola who is also the Alawe of Offa (the one who consults the oracle to certify the choice of the kingmakers to the stool) as the head of the council of princesses, the Anilelerin Ruling house lineage had produced 14 Oloffas as against eight of the Olugbense. They chorused their objection to the Appeal Court judgement because, according to them, the orders of the justices were not in conformity with the appellants who incidentally are same brothers with them.

Sunday Mirror learnt that the presence of the large crowd of Offa people in the palace is a testimony of the people’s love and support for the king and they expressed the hope that the judgement of the apex court would be in favour of the present ruling house.

Speaking on the contending issue of rotation between the two houses, 120 years old Prince Okunlola said nominations are made by the ruling houses to the kingmakers who have the absolute rights to make their choice. According to him, trouble started when the last Oloffa from the Olugbense Ruling House in 1969 who reigned for 10 years did not go through the traditional process of appointing and installing of Oloffa. He said the king at the time was turbaned from Ilorin as against ‘crowning’ that is the tradition. Not only that, the king’s 10-year reign was characterised by crises that were even too much for government to contain. At the end, he was persuaded by the government to step down after setting up a commission of enquiry. He added that it was the commission, however, that recommended that the two houses should be free to field nominations to the kingmakers whenever there was vacancy to the stool but never said it should be rotational. This position, he said, was in the commission’s report and the government gazette.

Also, Prince Babalola said contrary to some claims that Anilelerin Ruling House is a female lineage, it is a lineage of a male child of the same Olugbense, the one and only progenitor of Offa kingship. According to him, Olugbense had a female child married to a prince of Ajase Ipo in the present day Irepodun Local Government. This princess of Offa had no child of her own but rather, one of her cousins by name Olukoso of the present Anilelerin lineage gave her two of his male children by name Bamigbola and Aremu to stay with her. At a point, her father who was the reigning Oloffa of Olugbense descent became old and took ill. Her brothers who were the princes with the king in the palace did not bother to take care of their father because they wanted the king to die so that they could ascend to the throne and inherit his wealth because he was a very wealthy man. They allegedly found an opportunity when the palace was gutted by fire and the old man was left to die in the inferno. Unknown to them, the princess who was also around had cleverly moved the old king out of the inferno. At the end of the fire, they thought their father must have died but to their chagrin, the princess brought the king out from where she was hiding him. Enraged, the aged Oloffa reportedly cursed his male children and blessed his daughter, the kind princess. He was said to have prayed that if it would be possible, she could produce kings in Offa.

Prince Babalola added that the Oloffa eventually died and his sons could not agree among themselves to ascend the throne and in the process, the kind princess that was ‘Eniola’ popularly called ‘Iya Ipo’ offered to nominate one of her cousin’s sons living with her in Ajase Ipo as a way out of the logjam and the prince she nominated at the time was Bamigbola.

However, the Olugbenses at a press conference in Ilorin said there was an agreement in 1969 that filling the stool of Oloffa would be rotational which automatically made it their turn to produce the next candidate after the passage of Oba Mustapha Olawore Olanipekun.

At a press briefing addressed by Prince Adebayo Keji, they accused the kingmakers and the Kwara State Government of ignoring their position to appoint and install Oba Muftau Esuwoye. They called on the government to implement the order of the Appeal Court and install Prince Abdulrauf Adegboyega Keji forthwith.

Meanwhile, two of the four kingmakers in Offa; High Chief Joseph Bayo Akinola, the Ojomu of Offa and High Chief Oseni Ayodeji Olawuyi, the Balogun of Offa, spoke with Sunday Mirror in Offa. The other two, the Essa of Offa was said to be out of the country while the Shawo of Offa was not available last Tuesday. The Balogun in his explanation insisted that to the kingmakers, there had never been two ruling houses in Offa but that two ruling families were recognised and that came into being in the interest of peace. He said traditionally, there was only one ruling house of the kingship progenitor. Chief Olawuyi said there was a process to follow in the selection of the new Oloffa – Olugbense and Anilelerin would present candidates that their families have agreed on to the kingmakers to choose from. The choice of the kingmakers however would be requested traditionally from the oracle of the town and then go ahead to sample opinions of a spectrum of interests in Offa before making the final choice. This procedure, he said, was duly followed in the case of Oba Esuwoye. If other steps could not be open, he said, the issue of popularity is obvious for all to see, he added. The High Chief said by the popular applause, the choice of the monarch received from members of the community which had not gone wane ever since, the kingmakers could not be otherwise convinced.

Also, the Ojomu, Chief Olaniyi said there was no point to expect the kingmakers now to deviate from the tradition of the town and what was handed over to them by their forefathers. According to him, in the beginning, the royal family would choose one of their own and take it to Alaafin of Oyo for ratification and installation. The decision of Alaafin was never controverted at the time, being the head of the general Yoruba kingdom. However, with the advent of westernised governments in Nigeria, the regionisation and direct involvement in the process of installing kings, the role of the kingmakers had become more paramount to tailor the exercise in line with the tradition of various communities. The position of the kingmakers, therefore, could not be over-emphasised, be added

In the same vein, Mr. Segun Olawoyin, son of the late political scion of Offa and Kwara State, Chief Josiah Olawoyin, said there was no truth in some insinuations that Kwara State government had a vested interest in the choice of Oba Esuwoye. Olawoyin, who was the Chairman of Offa Local Government when the installation was done, said as the council that was directly in charge of transmitting the choice to government and an indigene of the town, the business of the choice was left to those traditionally saddled with the responsibility to do and pass on to the government. He denied that neither of the tiers of government refused the choice of the Olugbenses to fill the stool of Oloffa as claimed by the house.