Abuja lawyer Pelumi Olajengbesi has dismissed claims that the Alaafin of Oyo holds supremacy over pan-Yoruba affairs, insisting no Supreme Court ruling grants such authority.
Abuja-based lawyer, Pelumi Olajengbesi, has faulted claims that the Alaafin of Oyo holds supremacy in pan-Yoruba matters, stressing that no Supreme Court judgment accords the stool such power.
The debate followed Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi’s conferment of the Okanlomo of Yorubaland title on Ibadan businessman, Dotun Sanusi—an action the Alaafin, Oba Abimbola Owoade, described as an affront, demanding its reversal within 48 hours.
In a statement on Tuesday, Olajengbesi described the threat as “wholly gratuitous and constitutionally unsound.” He said, “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.”
The lawyer noted that tradition and scholarship affirm Ile-Ife as the cradle of Yoruba civilization, adding that no law, statute, or court ruling has vested exclusive authority in the Alaafin to decide pan-Yoruba affairs.