Oyo’s paramount ruler, the Alaafin, Oba Akeem Owoade, has dismissed a viral YouTube video alleging a royal supremacy clash between him and another traditional ruler, calling the claims “malicious lies” and urging the public to ignore the publication.
The monarch, in a statement signed by his Director of Media and Publicity, Debo Durojaiye, on Tuesday in Ibadan, said there is no rivalry between him and any monarch, and described the publication by Awikonko TV as “a misleading and wicked fabrication.”
“I am not in any supremacy battle with any monarch,” Oba Owoade stated emphatically, countering the online medium’s claims that he ordered an assault on the father of a monarch from a village in the United States.
Describing the creator of the video as “a pathological liar” who should “be confined to the dungeon of eternity,” the statement strongly denied all allegations and provided clarification on the monarch’s relationship with the Oyotunji community in the U.S.
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“What really happened was that the ancestral lineage of descendants of Oyotunji village in the USA is Oyo town. On more than two occasions, during the reign of the late Alaafin Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, the people of Oyotunji village traced their roots to Oyo town and were warmly received,” the statement read.
Durojaiye further explained that following the coronation of the new Alaafin, the Oyotunji monarch paid a courtesy visit to Oba Owoade to congratulate him. “He was well received by the Alaafin before his departure. Where then did this online medium… get its own story, if not a cooked-up one?” he queried.
The palace also questioned the logic of the accusation, asking, “How possible is it for the Alaafin to order the beating of a monarch who paid him a visit from a foreign village and with Oyo town as its ancestral home?”
The statement stressed that the Alaafin, as a custodian of Yoruba heritage, is more concerned with the development of his people and the progress of Yorubaland than in any petty rivalry. “The Alaafin is not in a royal supremacy battle with anyone, but rather more concerned about the progress and development of his country home and the emancipation of the entire Yoruba race.”
The statement reads, “The attention of the media office of the Alaafin of Oyo has been drawn to a misleading and wicked fabrication of a video produced by an online medium, Awikonko TV, and shown on YouTube. In the malicious video, the anchor narrated how Oba Owoade 1, ordered his men to beat to a pulp ‘father of the monarch’ of a village in the United States of America and later handed him over to the Police. The misguided anchor said the action was in attestation of Alaafin Owoade’s supremacy battle with the Ooni of Ife. The anchor of the video was not only a pathological liar, but should be confined to the dungeon of eternity for being heartless in dishing out such lies.
“What really happened was that the ancestral lineage of descendants of Oyotunji village in the USA is Oyo town. It was more than two occasions, during the reign of the late Alaafin, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, that the people of Oyotunji village traced their ancestral home to Oyo town and were given a red carpet reception. When a new Alaafin was appointed and after the coronation, the Oyotunji monarch thought it expedient to pay a congratulatory visit to his ancestral Royal Father, which he did. He was well received by the Alaafin before his departure. Where then did this online medium defecating the social media space get its own story, if not a cooked-up one? The video shown neither correlates nor synchronises with the anchor.
“What is more, how possible is it for the Alaafin to order the beaten of a monarch who paid him a visit from a foreign village and with Oyo town as its ancestral home? However, to those who are bereft of Yoruba history, as a purveyor of authentic Yoruba traditions and given the responsibility of the Alaafin who is expected to be diplomatic, energetic and protective of his people could not have condescend so low as to have ordered his men to beat to a pulp father of a monarch from a village that belongs to Oyo in the United States of America.
“Before anyone can be appointed for the position of Alaafin, he must possess all these qualities, hence the titan of Yorubaland’s success in the building of a strong and longest reigning empire in the world, Oyo empire, which lasted over 600 uninterrupted years and also founded a new settlement with an efficient palace bureaucracy, and an unwritten but resilient constitution. Alaafin is not in a royal supremacy battle with anyone, but rather more concerned about the progress and development of his country home and the emancipation of the entire Yoruba race.”
