The prolonged deadlock over the selection of a new Awujale and Paramount Ruler of Ijebuland has taken a fresh legal turn, with the Fusengbuwa Ruling House asking the Ogun State High Court to order the Awujale Afobajes, or kingmakers, to reconvene and complete the selection of a new monarch within seven days.
The ruling house is, however, not only challenging the failure of the kingmakers to proceed with the selection. It is also asking the court to determine whether the Ogun State Government had the legal authority to suspend the process in the first place, including the alleged locking of the Awujale Palace which prevented the kingmakers from performing their statutory duties.
The case is contained in an originating summons dated August 25, 2026, filed before the High Court of Justice, Ijebu-Ode Judicial Division.
The suit was instituted by Otunba Abdul Lateef Adebayo Owoyemi, Otunba Adedokun Ajidagba and Prof. Chief Fassy Adetokunboh Yusuf on behalf of the Fusengbuwa Ruling House.
Named as defendants are the Ogun State Governor, the Attorney-General of Ogun State, the Ogun State Executive Council, the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, the Chairman and Secretary of Ijebu-Ode Local Government, as well as members of the Awujale Afobaje/Kingmakers Council.
The ruling house is seeking an interpretation of the Obas and Chiefs’ Law of Ogun State, 2021, particularly the provisions governing the nomination, selection and approval of candidates for a vacant ruling-house chieftaincy stool.
The vacancy arose following the death of the late Awujale and Paramount Ruler of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, on July 13, 2025.
According to the court papers, Ijebu-Ode Local Government notified the Fusengbuwa Ruling House on December 2, 2025, that it was the family’s turn to produce candidates for the vacant stool in accordance with the established rotation arrangement.
A public notice followed on December 4, inviting the ruling house to nominate candidates within the period prescribed by law.
The local government subsequently issued another letter dated January 6, 2026, approving the commencement of the internal nomination exercise and directing the ruling house to communicate the date, time and venue of the exercise to the appropriate authorities.
The Fusengbuwa Ruling House said it complied by holding its nomination meeting on January 12, 2026, after which the names of the nominated candidates were forwarded to the Awujale Afobaje/Kingmakers Council on January 19, 2026.
The court document contains a detailed list of the candidates nominated by the ruling house, including the names of their nominators and seconders.
The ruling house’s position is that its statutory responsibility ended with the completion of the nomination exercise and submission of the list to the kingmakers.
It therefore wants the court to declare that the nomination exercise was validly completed and that there is no legal basis for compelling the ruling house to start the process afresh.
The next stage, according to the claimants, belongs to the Afobajes.
They are asking the court to direct the Awujale Afobaje/Kingmakers Council to reconvene within seven days of the judgment, or within such period as the court may consider appropriate, and select a candidate from the existing Fusengbuwa nomination list.
The selected candidate would then be forwarded to the appropriate government authority for consideration and approval in accordance with the law.
The seven-day request is one of the most significant reliefs being sought by the ruling house, which argues that the prolonged suspension of the succession process has continued to create uncertainty over the vacant throne.
But the legal action goes beyond the kingmakers.
The Fusengbuwa Ruling House is also asking the court to determine whether the Governor and other government defendants had any statutory authority to halt the Awujale nomination or selection process after it had commenced.
The claimants specifically want the court to determine whether any of the government defendants had the legal authority to order or cause the forcible entry into and locking of the Awujale Palace in circumstances that prevented the kingmakers from carrying out their statutory responsibilities.
The claimants alleged that police officers entered the palace after midnight on January 20, 2026, and locked the premises, thereby preventing the Afobajes from meeting to select a preferred candidate from the list submitted by the ruling house.
The ruling house further stated that members of the ruling house and the kingmakers were subsequently invited by the police and the Department of State Services over allegations of bribery and financial inducement.
The claimants maintain that the allegations were not sufficiently particularised against them and that they were not shown the petition or informed of the identities of those behind the allegations.
They are consequently asking the court to determine whether the government has any legal power under the Ogun State chieftaincy law or any other written law to suspend the succession process under such circumstances.
The ruling house is also seeking a perpetual injunction restraining the Governor, Attorney-General, Executive Council, Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Ijebu-Ode Local Government and their officials from further interfering with or obstructing the completion of the selection process.
Perhaps more significantly, the claimants want the court to restrain the defendants from commencing, facilitating or recognising any fresh, parallel or alternative nomination or selection process in place of the nomination exercise already completed by Fusengbuwa.
The request is aimed at preserving the existing nomination list and preventing a situation in which the prolonged dispute leads to the reopening of the process.
The claimants argue that Section 16 of the Obas and Chiefs’ Law of Ogun State, 2021, establishes a sequential procedure for filling the vacant stool, beginning with nomination by the appropriate ruling house and progressing to selection by the kingmakers and subsequent consideration by the state government.
Their case is that once Fusengbuwa completed its part of that statutory procedure and submitted the list to the Afobajes, the kingmakers became legally obligated to perform the next stage.
They are therefore asking the court to compel the kingmakers to act rather than allow the process to remain indefinitely suspended.
The suit places before the court a broader question concerning the respective powers and responsibilities of the Fusengbuwa Ruling House, the Awujale Afobajes and the Ogun State Government in the emergence of the next monarch.
While the ruling house wants the kingmakers compelled to conclude their role within seven days, it equally wants the court to clarify the limits of government intervention in the traditional succession process.
The claimants maintain that the continued suspension has heightened tension within the ruling house and Ijebuland and that allowing the statutory process to proceed is necessary to bring the prolonged uncertainty to an end.
They argue that the issue before the court is substantially one of statutory interpretation and that the law should determine whether the process already commenced can be stopped, restarted or replaced with a fresh procedure.
The case is coming months after the death of Oba Adetona, whose reign lasted several decades and whose death created the vacancy now at the centre of the dispute.
For the people of Ijebuland, the legal battle has now added another dimension to an already prolonged succession process.
The central question is no longer simply who will become the next Awujale, but whether the process already undertaken by the Fusengbuwa Ruling House should proceed from where it stopped, whether the Afobajes can be compelled to complete their assignment, and whether the Ogun State Government possesses the legal authority to suspend or interfere with the process.
The originating summons contains the claims and legal arguments of the Fusengbuwa Ruling House. The allegations against the defendants remain to be determined by the court, and the filing of the case does not amount to a judicial finding against any of the defendants.
The defendants’ responses to the latest originating summons were not contained in the document available for this report.
The case therefore places the future of the Awujale succession process squarely before the Ogun State High Court, with the Fusengbuwa Ruling House asking for a clear judicial directive: let the Afobajes reconvene, select the next monarch and move the process forward within seven days.
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