An Abuja-based lawyer, Pelumi Olajengbesi, has dismissed claims that the Alaafin of Oyo holds supreme authority over other Yoruba monarchs, stating that no law or Supreme Court judgment confers such powers on the Oyo throne.
Olajengbesi, in a statement posted on his Facebook page on Tuesday, said the claim being pushed in the ongoing supremacy dispute between the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Akeem Owoade, and the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has no legal or historical foundation.
He described the ultimatum issued by the Alaafin to the Ooni, demanding the withdrawal of the chieftaincy title of Okanlomo of Yorubaland recently conferred on Ibadan business mogul, Engineer Dotun Sanusi, as “gratuitous and constitutionally unsound.”
“The law recognises traditional rulers through state chieftaincy statutes, not residual claims of imperial conquest. With the greatest respect, no statute, no Supreme Court judgment, and no constitutional instrument vests exclusive pan-Yoruba jurisdiction in the Alaafin,” Olajengbesi said.
He added that judicial pronouncements are always case-specific and cannot be stretched to grant the Alaafin supremacy over other Yoruba monarchs.
“The oft-cited Supreme Court decision that is now exaggerated and purportedly vested authority in the Alaafin must be properly confined to its facts. No ratio decidendi of that Court has ever declared the Alaafin the sole custodian of Yoruba legitimacy,” the lawyer stressed.
Olajengbesi argued that the Ooni acted within his ancestral and cultural prerogatives in honouring Sanusi, noting that the conferment of chieftaincy titles falls squarely within his remit as custodian of Yoruba identity.
“The Ooni of Ife acted squarely within his lawful, ancestral, and cultural prerogatives. These prerogatives are sui generis, inherent, and incapable of usurpation by any other stool. They are not the product of conquest or temporal power but derive from the very foundation of Yoruba civilization,” he added.
