Awujale Stool: Ruling House Drags Ogun Govt, Kingmakers to Court

By: Abudu Olalekan

Ijebuland has been without a king since July 2025. That’s a long time for a throne that mattered so much, to so many, for 65 straight years.

Now the matter has landed in court.

The Fusengbuwa Ruling House in Ijebu-Ode has sued Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun, the Awujale kingmakers and five others — among them the Chairman of Ijebu-Ode Local Government, Dare Alebiosu — asking the Ogun State High Court in Ijebu-Ode to compel everyone involved to simply finish what they started: pick the next Awujale and Paramount Ruler of Ijebuland.

The suit is dated August 21, 2026. A copy was made available to journalists on Monday, and Reportersroom has seen it.

It was filed by three men speaking for the family — Abdulateef Owoyemi, chairman of the ruling house; his deputy, Adedokun Ajidagba; and vice chairman, Prof Fassy Yusuf.

Who they’re suing

The list is long, and it reads like a who’s who.

Alongside the governor are the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Oluwasina Ogungbade (SAN); the Ogun State Executive Council; the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Ganiyu Hamzat; and the Secretary of Ijebu-Ode Local Government.

Then the kingmakers themselves — all nine members of the Awujale Afobaje Council. Sonny Kuku. Chief Rasheed Adesanya. Chief Oluwaranti Osifeso. Chief Jimi Lawal. Chief Abimbola Okenla. Chief Kunle Ogunade. Chief Agboola Alausa. Chief Adebisi Adaran. And Chief Ayotunde Odulaja.

The night the palace was locked

Here’s where the whole thing turned sour.

According to the claimants, Ijebu-Ode Local Government wrote to the ruling house on December 2, 2025, telling them it was their turn to produce a candidate under the rotational arrangement in the Obas and Chiefs Law of Ogun State 2021. Fair enough. They got to work.

A family meeting was held on January 12, 2026 — comfortably inside the 14 days the law allows under Section 16(1)(b). By the end of it, 95 princes and princesses had been nominated. The complete list went to the nine kingmakers on January 19.

Less than 24 hours later, it was over.

The claimants say police officers stormed the Awujale Palace after midnight on January 20, 2026, locked the place and stopped the kingmakers from sitting down to choose from the 95 names. No meeting. No selection. Nothing.

A letter later came from the local government. It talked about security concerns. It also mentioned bribery and financial inducement.

The ruling house isn’t buying any of it. They say nobody produced evidence. No formal petition was ever shown to them. And, they insist, investigations by both the police and the Department of State Services turned up nothing.

What they’re asking the judge

The questions put before the court are pointed, and they mostly boil down to one thing — who gave anybody the right to stop this?

The claimants want the court to say whether the government had any legal power at all to order or facilitate the entry into and locking of the Awujale Palace on January 20, “to physically prevent” the kingmakers from concluding the statutory selection.

They also want a ruling on whether the Obas and Chiefs Law allows the state to freeze the nomination or selection of an Awujale “under any guise.”

And whether, having met and completed their internal nomination within the legal window, the family had already done its job under Section 16.

And whether the kingmakers, once they collected that list, became bound to select somebody and send the name up to the State Executive Council.

Also on the table: whether the process had already formally kicked off, going by the notices issued on December 2 and December 4, 2025, and January 6, 2026.

In the originating summons, the questions are framed this way:

“Whether, having regard to the strict provisions of Section 16(c) of the Obas and Chiefs Law of Ogun State 2021 and having convened a meeting of the Fusengbuwa Ruling House and completed the internal nomination of candidate(s) within the time prescribed by law, the claimants are not deemed to have duly and completely discharged their statutory responsibility of nominating candidate(s) for the vacant stool of Awujale and Paramount Ruler of Ijebuland.

“Whether, having regard to the strict provisions of Section 16(e) of the Obas and Chiefs Law of Ogun State 2021, and the Chieftaincy Declaration regulating the selection of the Awujale of Ijebuland, and upon the delivery of the Fusengbuwa Ruling House/Family Nomination List to the seventh to 15th defendants, the seventh to 15th defendants did not become obligated to proceed to select a person to fill the vacant stool of Awujale and Paramount Ruler of Ijebuland, and thereafter forward the name of the person so selected to the third defendant.

“Whether, by the provisions of Section 22 of the Obas and Chiefs Law of Ogun State 2021, the third defendant is not obligated, upon the presentation of a selected candidate to it, to act on such selection.

“Whether the first to sixth defendants, or any of them, possessed any power under the Obas and Chiefs Law of Ogun State 2021, or any other written law, to direct or cause the forcible entry into, and locking of, the Awujale Palace by officers of the Nigerian Police as was done after midnight on Tuesday, January 20, 2026.”

The reliefs

They’re not just asking for declarations. They want the clock restarted, and quickly.

The ruling house wants the court to order the kingmakers to reconvene within seven days of judgment and finish the selection. It also wants an injunction stopping the state government and security agencies from interfering again.

Among the reliefs sought:

“(a) A declaration that the claimants, having convened their Ruling House meeting and completed the nomination of candidate(s) on or about January 12, 2026, pursuant to the public notice published on December 4, 2025, and the letter of January 6, 2026, have fully and duly discharged their statutory responsibility of nominating candidate(s) for the vacant stool of Awujale and Paramount Ruler of Ijebuland under Section 16(1)(b) of the Obas and Chiefs Law of Ogun State 2021, and are accordingly estopped from being required to reopen, repeat or recommence the said nomination process.

“(b) A declaration that the seventh to 15th defendants, having received the Fusengbuwa Ruling House/Family Nomination List on January 19, 2026, are obligated by Section 16(1)(e) and (f) of the Obas and Chiefs Law of Ogun State 2021 to select a candidate therefrom and to forward the name of their selected or preferred candidate to the third defendant.

“(c) A declaration that the lockout of the Awujale Palace, purporting to halt the selection process, is unlawful, ultra vires the Obas and Chiefs Law of Ogun State 2021, and done in breach of the claimants’ and the seventh to 15th defendants’ right to fair hearing, and is accordingly null, void and of no effect.”

Why the throne is empty

The stool fell vacant on July 13, 2025, when Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona died at 91.

Sixty-five years on the throne. Few Nigerian monarchs come close to that. His passing left a vacuum that Ijebuland is still trying to fill, and clearly, not peacefully.

The lawyer’s argument

Counsel for the claimants, led by Olusegun Otayemi, kept it simple in the originating summons.

The chieftaincy law lays out a sequence — nominate, select, approve. One step, then the next, then the last. Once that sequence begins, he argued, it has to run its course. You don’t get to stop it halfway because somebody whispered something about money.

For now, the palace stays quiet. And Ijebuland waits on a judge.