Alawo Stool: Embattled new Osun monarch, Taiwo Adegboye, risks jail term over alleged contempt

• • • Awo Four Ruling Houses approach Appeal Court in Akure

The crisis rocking the ancient town of Awo in Egbedore Local Government Area of Osun State, took a new twist penultimate week, following the alleged illegal appointment of Taiwo Abdulrasaq Adegboye as new Alawo by Governor Gboyega Oyetola.

This is just as the four Ruling Houses in the town approached the Appeal Court sitting in Akure to commit Adegboye to prison if he dares to parade himself as the monarch in defiance to subsisting orders of the State High Court.

They insisted that Governor Oyetola was wrongly advised to approve the appointment of Taiwo Adegboye as new monarch of the ancient town of Awo on September 13, 2021.

The Ruling Houses, according to the application before the Appellate Court, were Awojobi, Akinsilo, Abioye and Okunji, maintaining that Governor Oyetola did not follow due process and violated the orders of the court in announcing Adegboye as new Alawo. They insisted that Adegboye was imposed on the community in defiance to subsisting orders of the Osun State High Court.

While approaching the Appeal Court sitting in Akure on Friday September 17, 2021 on behalf of the four Ruling Houses in Awo with Appeal N0: CA/AK/58m/2021 on suit N0: HOS/84/2020, where Taiwo Adegboye was an appellant, Barrister Kehinde Adesiyan, a Legal Counsel, urged the Appellate Court to uphold the preservative order of the Lower Court by nullifying the September 13, 2021 approval and appointment of Taiwo Abdulrasaq Adegboye as new Alawo of Awo by Governor Oyetola, for violating the order of the State High Court sitting in Osogbo.

The embattled Taiwo Adegboye, with his collaborators, including four officials of Egbedore Local Government, Awo and one Hamzat Abidoye Gboyelade, have been under criminal investigation at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Police Zonal Headquarters (Zone XI), Osogbo on the allegation of forgery and perjury of selection documents for the throne of Alawo leveled against them by a Crown Prince of Abioye Ruling House/Compound, Awo, Prince Abubakar Adeniyi, through a human rights organization (CHRSJ).

This was consummated through a Petition Letter dated September 10, 2021 and forwarded to the authorities of the Nigeria Police Force, the DSS and other concerned authorities for proper, credible and thorough investigation into the allegation.

Prince Adeniyi, who supported the Petition with the 15 Paragraph Court Affidavit of Affirmation, insisted that every document in favour of Taiwo Abdulrasaq Adegboye to his purported emergency as new Alawo was fake, forged and perjury, stressing that the State Government under Gboyega Oyetola were tricked to give wrong approval to a serial forger to become a monarch in the State.

Adesiyan, who prayed the Appeal Court to grant a mandatory restorative order of reversal of the action taken by or the reversal of the steps taken by the 8th and 11th Respondents in considering, acting on, appointing, approving and or making use of the selection/nomination of the 2nd Appellant (Taiwo Adegboye) as the new Alawo of Awoland during the pendency of this Appeal and the pendency of Motion on Notice for Interlocutory Injunction yet to be argued in the lower Court after the appeal had been entered in this Court.

Also, seeking an order setting aside the said approval and subsequent installation of the 2nd Appellant as the new Alawo of Awo which happened at the hour of 11:15p.m midnight of the 13th of September, 2021, pursuant to the approval of the 8th Respondent (Governor Oyetola) at the State Executive Council meeting at Osogbo between 9:00p.m and 11:00p.m on the same of September 13, 2021.

They sought for an order of Injunction restraining the 2nd Appellant in particular from parading himself as Alawo of Awo or wears any insignia of office including beads or crown showing or depicting his installation as Alawo of Awo pending the determination of this appeal and the substantive Suit at the lower Court.

They further explained that on September 2, 2020, the four Ruling Houses in Awo, instituted an action at the lower Court to challenge the status and qualification of the Appellant (Taiwo Adegboye) to vie for Alawo of Awo stool which became vacant on ground that either biologically or consaguinically, where the State High Court granted a preservative order on September 16, 2020, that parties in the suit, including Governor Oyetola and his privies, Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Attorney-General and Egbedore Local Government Area, should maintain status quo pending the determination of the Preliminary Objection (PO) and Motion on Notice before it.

But to the surprise of other parties in the Suit N0: HOS/84/2020, some emergency Warrant Kingmakers and two living traditional Kingmakers claimed to be emerged on 2nd of September, 2020, the day this action was instituted that they have selected and elected 2nd Appellant (Taiwo Adegboye) as new Alawo of Awo, upon which Governor Oyetola acted upon to approve Adegboye as new Alawo on 13th of September, 2021.

They added that Adegboye came up with the Preliminary Objection (PO) to the suit N0: HOS/84/2020, which the State High Court presided over by Honourable Justice A. O. Ayoola, dismissed the application by ordering for the accelerated hearing of the Suit because of the importance of the matter, but Adegboye dissatisfied with the State High Court to hear the matter because he did not want the State High Court to expose his forgery and perjury acts in ascending the Alawo throne by approaching the Appellate Court in Akure without  filling any brief till the present moment, which he began with the use of political abracadabra to mount pressure on Governor Oyetola to announce him as a new Alawo and which Oyetola conceded to approve on September 13, 2021, because he claimed to be a member of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Egbedore Local Government Area of the state.

But investigation indicated that Taiwo Adegboye was not wise enough that he was an appellant at the Appeal sitting in Akure, by not waiting for the pronouncement of the appellate Court on the action he (Taiwo) instituted against the State High Court ruling to give accelerated hearing to the matter before it to determine the authentic members of the Abioye Ruling House/Compound, Awo, before he began to lobby Governor Oyetola to jettison the preservative order of the State High Court and his pending application in the Appellate Court through the State Attorney-General, Barrister Femi Akande as 11 Respondent in his Appeal Suit N0: CA/AK/58/2021 to pronounce him as new Alawo, adding that Governor Oyetola accepted this trick through the State Attorney-General and approved Taiwo Adegboye as new Alawo in flagrant disobedience to Rule of Law, and the Constitution Governor Oyetola sworn to uphold at all times.

Earlier, another State High Court sitting in Ede, presided over by Honourable Justice M. O. Agboola, had given an order of interlocutory injunction, on August 27, 2020, that all the parties, including Oyetola, Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Egbedore Local Government, Awo, in the suit N0: HED/26/2020, to maintain status quo pending the determination of the suit.

However, instead of obeying the order of the State High Court, the Local Government officials came up with the selection and election of Taiwo Abdulrasaq Adegboye as the new Alawo in defiance to the order of the Court of competent jurisdiction on September 2, 2020, upon which Governor Oyetola acted upon to appoint Taiwo Adegboye as new Alawo on September 13, 2021.