The crisis over who should administer Ijebu-Ode during the prolonged vacancy of the Awujale stool has taken a fresh legal turn, with the Adele Oba Awujale-in-Council dragging Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun and members of the state-backed Awujale Interregnum Administrative Council (AIAC) before the Ogun State High Court.
The suit, filed at the High Court sitting in Ijebu-Ode and marked HCJ/201/2026, challenges the legality of the AIAC and asks the court to recognise the Adele Oba Awujale-in-Council, led by the Ogbeni Oja of Ijebuland, Olo’rgun Dr Sonny Kuku, as the traditional administrative authority during the current interregnum.
The fresh litigation comes barely a week after the Ogun State Government reconstituted the AIAC and declared it the only legally recognised body authorised to oversee the administrative and traditional affairs of Ijebuland pending the appointment and coronation of a new Awujale.
It also follows a resolution by senior Ijebu chiefs to dissolve the existing interregnum arrangement and transition into the Adele Oba Awujale-in-Council, citing what they described as established customary and traditional practices.
Council challenges AIAC’s legality
In the substantive suit, the claimants are asking the court to declare that, under the native law, customs, traditions and ancestral usages of the Ijebu people, the Adele Oba Awujale-in-Council is the appropriate traditional administrative authority during an interregnum.
They are also asking the court to declare the creation and reconstitution of the AIAC by the governor, the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and other state authorities as alien to Ijebu customary practice and inconsistent with the applicable chieftaincy framework.
Among the reliefs sought is an order setting aside the purported reconstitution of the AIAC and the appointments of its members.
The claimants are further seeking a permanent injunction restraining the governor, state ministries, officials and their agents from interfering with or bypassing the customary functions they claim for the Adele Oba Awujale-in-Council.
They also want the court to restrain members of the reconstituted AIAC from holding meetings, parading themselves or exercising traditional, civil or financial administrative authority over Ijebu-Ode under the AIAC arrangement.
Interim injunction sought
Alongside the substantive action, the Kuku-led council has filed a motion seeking interlocutory injunctions pending the determination of the main suit.
Specifically, the applicants want the court to stop the members of the reconstituted AIAC from exercising administrative authority over Ijebu-Ode.
They also want an order restraining the governor, the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and their agents from recognising, dealing with or funding the defendants as an administrative council for Ijebu-Ode while the case remains pending.
Kuku: Suit is about preserving tradition
Explaining the action, Kuku said the case was not intended to interfere with the process of selecting the next Awujale.
He said the succession exercise had reached the stage where the Afobajes were deliberating on a candidate from the 95 names previously submitted.
According to him, the litigation is instead aimed at preserving what the council regards as the traditional Adele system during the interregnum.
Kuku said the council had earlier advised the governor on the customary arrangement before the first AIAC was constituted.
He also cited historical precedent, arguing that the administration of the Western Region under former Premier S.L.A. Akintola did not establish an AIAC before Oba Sikiru Adetona was installed as Awujale in 1960.
He maintained that the Adele concept, traditionally associated with the Ogbeni Oja, predates the present dispute and is deeply rooted in the history of the Awujale institution.
Government maintains AIAC is lawful
The state government, however, has taken the opposite position.
When it reconstituted the AIAC earlier this month, the government said the council remained the only legally recognised body authorised to administer the affairs of Ijebuland during the interregnum.
It appointed Chief Rasheed Adeoye Adesanya, the Olisa of Ijebu-Ode, as chairman and Chief Chris Okunowo, the Bobasuwa, as secretary, alongside three other members.
Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Ganiyu Hamzat, also rejected the Adele Oba Awujale-in-Council’s claim to legal recognition, saying neither the Awujale Chieftaincy Declaration nor the Ogun State Obas and Chiefs Law 2021 expressly provides for such a body.
Government further relied on a consent judgment in Suit No. HCJ/180/2025, which it said affirmed the legality and authority of the AIAC and remained binding on the parties.
The competing claims now place the court at the centre of a dispute over not merely the vacant throne but also who has authority to administer Ijebu-Ode while the succession process remains unresolved.
Another layer in a prolonged succession crisis
The latest suit adds to several legal battles surrounding the succession of the late Awujale, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, who died in July 2025 after 65 years on the throne.
WestNG previously reported that the Fusengbuwa Ruling House, which is next in the traditional rotation to produce the monarch, instituted Suit No. HCJ/149/2026 against Governor Abiodun, government officials and the Awujale kingmakers over the suspension of the succession process.
The ruling house had produced 95 aspirants—94 princes and one princess—before the process was halted by the state government amid petitions and concerns raised by stakeholders and security agencies.
Governor Abiodun, meanwhile, said last month that he expected a new Awujale to emerge before May 29, 2027, while urging stakeholders to remain calm as the process is concluded.
