According to A Report From The Guardian Nigeria,The Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, has declined to respond to a 48-hour ultimatum issued by the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Abimbola Owoade, demanding the withdrawal of a chieftaincy title conferred on Ibadan-based businessman Dotun Sanusi.
In a statement posted on Tuesday, Ooni’s spokesperson, Moses Olafare, said the monarch had directed him not to engage on the matter.
“My principal has directed me against issuing a press release on the empty threat of the Alawada Babasala. I beg to disappoint you, gentlemen of the press. We cannot dignify the undignifyable with an official response,” Olafare wrote.
The spokesperson added that the Ooni preferred to allow public opinion to take its course, rather than escalate the disagreement between the two traditional rulers.
“We leave the matter to be handled in the public court of opinion, as it is already being treated. Let’s rather focus on narratives that unite us rather than the ones capable of dividing us,” the statement read.
The Alaafin of Oyo had, on Monday, issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the Ooni to revoke the chieftaincy title, describing it as an “affront”.
“The conferment of chieftaincy title, which bothers on Yorubaland by the Ooni of Ife, is not only an affront to the referred institution of the Alaafin, who is the Titan of Yorubaland and on who holds the exclusive right to confer any chieftaincy title which covers the entire Yorubaland on anyone,” the monarch’s Director of Media and Publicity, Bode Durojaiye, wrote in a statement.
“The Ooni of Ife is behaving as if there is no authority to check and call him to order, and because of that ‘above the law’ syndrome of his. He is in the habit of walking on everybody’s back, including the apex court in the country, the Supreme Court, which had ruled on the exclusive preserve of the Alaafin to confer chieftaincy title that covers the entire Yorubaland on anyone.”
Durojaiye said that the Ooni’s traditional authority is limited to the Oranmiyan Local Government Area, which has now been split into three local governments, viz: Ife Central, Ife North, and Ife South in Ondo State.
“The dictum that nobody is above the law of the land is now being put to a crucial test and the reality of our time makes it very obligatory for the Alaafin to call the Ooni of Ife to order and demand REVOCATION of the so- called OKANLOMO of Yorubaland chieftaincy title conferred on Engineer Dotun Sanusi WITHIN 48 HOURS or face the consequences,” he said. “The dictum that nobody is above the law of the land is now being put to a crucial test and the reality of our time makes it very obligatory for the Alaafin to call the Ooni of Ife to order and demand REVOCATION of the so-called OKANLOMO of Yorubaland chieftaincy title conferred on Engineer Dotun Sanusi WITHIN 48 HOURS or face the consequences,” the statement read in part.
