Image caption: Rival Alaajes – HRH Adesina (right) and HRH Ogunmola
Aaje chieftaincy tussle: Family declares preferred choice in leaked video, meeting’s minutes
Yinka ADETUNJI
The Aaje chieftaincy tussle has taken a new dimension as a leaked minutes of a recent family meeting as well as a leaked video clip have revealed the preference of family members as to who they want as their traditional ruler.
In the meeting held on March 8, 2024, at the hall of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) at the Oyo State High Court complex, Oke-Ado, Ogbomoso, at the instance of Justice Muideen Salami of the Magistrate Court, majority of the family members at the meeting, according to its minutes, indicated HRH Reuben Adesina Amao (a retired Director of Department of State Services, DSS), enjoys popular support in the family and community.
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In similar vein, a meeting held earlier ended with a short video in which scores of family members stated in a chorus that they did not want the rival claimant to the stool, HRH Sunday Ademola Ogunmola. “We don’t want Ademola,” it was chorused.
Recall the two brothers Reuben Adesina Amao and Sunday Ademola Ogunmola have been at loggerheads over who is the rightful claimant to the newly established stool/chieftaincy.
The meeting at the NBA Hall was supposed to be a peace meeting between the rival claimants as directed by the judge, anchored by the legal counsels of the claimants, but the mission was unfulfilled.
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However, the Mogaji (head of the Aaje family), Pa Isaac Adeleke, recalled that at the beginning the whole family including Ademola Ogunmola unanimously chose Adesina Amao to ascend to the stool of Aaje, a claim supported by another elder in the family, Mr. Sunday Aremu, who according to the minutes, said, “The whole family supported Adesina to be Alaaje.”
The minutes of the meeting similarly had it that one Mr. Sunday Adegoke also corroborated the claim affirming Ademola Ogunmola was at the meeting in which the choice of Adesina was ratified.
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Despite cautions by the lawyers that the directive of the court was not to discuss who was the authentic Alaaje, but to find amicable solution at the family level, a Mr. Alimi Adedokun still maintained, according to the meeting, that “Oba Adesina Amao is the one nominated by the whole family and community to be our chief.”
A supporter of Ademola Ogunmola, Mr. Oladele Idowu, however noted it was Ogunmola that the Soun, late Oba Oladunni Oyewumi Ajagungbade III, installed as Alaaje.
In the contrary Adesina was installed by members of Aaje family after he obtained approval from the state governor, Engr Seyi Makinde, sequel to late Oba Oyewumi’s footdragging after he initially approved Adesina’s nomination and that one met all obligations, financial and otherwise.
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Suggestion that the elder is the one often considered for the throne was rejected by Ogunmola who queried, “Is the present Soun Oba Ghandi Olaoye the oldest in the Laoye family before he was appointed?”
The meeting after further deliberations still failed to reach amicable resolution – the parties refused to withdraw the suits from the court, and that would be the third of such meeting.
