Magistrate Orders Oluwo To Face Criminal Charges Against Him

It was a shock at the Osogbo Magistrate court on Friday as Magistrate Olusola Aluko threatened to issue bench warrant of arrest against the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba AbdulRasheed Adewale Akanbi, for refusing to appear before court.

There was palpable tension around Ilobu Road, the premises of the court in the morning as the security was beefed up at the premises of the court at Oke-Fia, Osogbo during the resumed hearing of the case instituted by the Oluwo of Iwo-Oke, Oba Kadiri Adeoye against Oba Akanbi.

Oba Akanbi had sent the Ologburo of Ogburo, Oba Asimiyu Sadiq to represent him during the trial but Magistrate Aluko refused to allow the monarch to stand for the Oluwo, saying the monarch cannot be represented in a criminal matter.

According to Magistrate Aluko, “this is a criminal matter in which the person involved should appear. There is a criminal indictment against him; he has to be here in person, failure which an order will be issued against him. He cannot be represented at all.

“From the letter written by Oluwo, I just have to say I cannot take anything from anybody. He must be here at the next sitting. This is a quasi-criminal matter. He has to be here personally; I want him here at the next day of adjournment.

“In fact, I won’t take any application based on the letter he sent. At the last adjournment, about three chiefs sat down here, they said they were for the first respondent, and I told them that they are not parties in the matter before me. Unless he appears to defend himself, I am going to issue bench warrant for his arrest”.

Oba Adeoye had through his counsel; Barrister Soji Oyetayo approached the Magistrate Court accusing the Oluwo of Iwo of concealing some facts about his past to the state government when he was installed as a first class monarch about a year ago.

According to the Oluwo-Oke in a 33-paragraph affidavit, Oba Akanbi had displayed characters that did not befit a person of his status and calibre “as he is used to carrying armed thugs, miscreants and hoodlums around to harass, intimidate, molest and attacked persons whom he perceived as his enemies”.

He further alleged that the Oba Akanbi was “an ex-convict who does not deserve the post he is presently occupying”.

Oba Adeoye averred further, “That I know as a matter of fact that when he was about to travel out of the country sometimes late 1990’s, he disowned his father and started using the name Adeonigbagbe as his father’s name.

“That he used the said Adeonigbagbe as his surname to travel to the United States of America where he resided at New York City and that he was later arrested for an offence which bothered on dishonesty and was detained for seven months before his deportation back to Nigeria in 2000”.

He added that Oba Akanbi later travelled out with his real name to Canada in 2001 and became a Canadian citizen but was also arrested in Toronto and was in jail between 2006 and 2007, saying these facts were concealed for the state government which appointed and installed him as the Oluwo of Iwo.

He also accused him of presently making money through the internet fraud otherwise known as yahoo yahoo and was using his palace as a cover-up.

But Oba Akanbi reacted to these allegations through the Aremoof Iwo land, Chief Adelani Akanbi who described the application filed against the Oluwo of Iwo by Oba Adeoye as “scandalous, vexations and designed to embarrass, blackmail and ridicule the monarch in the view of right thinking members of the society”.

He further stated through a 13-paragraph objection that by virtue of his position, there was no person, be it traditional or honourary that is referred to the Oluwo of Iwo-Oke.

Oba Akanbi’s counsel, Barrister A.B Quadry asked the court to disqualify itself from hearing the case as it lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit and that the applicant lacked the locus to file the application against his client.

The case was adjourned to Tuesday, December 20, 2016 with a directive by the Magistrate to Oluwo of Iwo to appear in person to defend himself.