By KAZEEM AKINTUNDE
The people of Ipetumodu, a bustling community in Ife North Local Government area of Osun State in 2019, selected Prince Joseph Olugbenga Oloyede to be the new Apetu of Ipetumodu after the demise of Oba James Adedokun Adegoke Akunraaledoye II who joined his ancestors in 2017.
The two-year gap of enthroning the new Oba was to ensure that the necessary rites and traditions were fulfilled so that the new monarch would be the choice of Ifa, which the Yoruba people of South West Nigeria believed would lead to the peace and progress of the town. In Yoruba land, the Ifa divination system is used in the selection of an Oba to determine the most suitable candidate amongst all the Princes and to seek divine approval for the chosen successor as well as confirm the will of the deities. The process usually involves Ifa priests (Babalawo) consulting the Ifa corpus to interpret the will of the gods, often revealing which lineage is destined for the throne and ensuring that the new Oba’s reign is blessed and successful.
Whilst Ifa must have predicted that the reign of Oba Oloyede would bring development and progress to the people of Ipetumodu prior to his ascension of the throne of his forefathers in 2019, his five years reign has only brought shame and dishonour to the town that expected so much from him.
In 2024, Oba Oloyede went conspicuously missing from the town during the annual Egungun festival. He was also missing when the Edi celebration was held and while Muslims celebrated the annual Eid festivities as those who went to the palace of their Oba to pay homage met his absence. Some of the kingmakers were at a loss as to why, with some telling curious indigenes of the town that their Oba was well, whilst others insisted that the Oba Oloyede only travelled to the USA and would soon be back.
Unknown to many, Oba Oloyede was behind bars in the USA after he was indicted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering charges. A statement issued by the US department of Transportation stated that a grand jury indicted Oloyede and one Edward Oluwasanmi for conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering. The indictment alleges that Oloyede and Olawasanmi fraudulently obtained over $4.2 million in COVID-19 relief funds guaranteed by the US Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, including Paycheck Protection Programme (PPP) loans and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs). According to the indictment, from April 2020 through February 28, 2022, Oloyede and Oluwasanmi submitted PPP and EIDL applications containing false information for entities under their control. They also allegedly submitted falsified tax and wage documents to support the applications. “Oloyede received $1.7 million, and Oluwasanmi received $1.2 million in SBA funds for their businesses,” the statement added. Additionally, Oloyede submitted falsified PPP and EIDL applications in the names of other co-conspirators and confederate borrowers and their businesses. “Oloyede obtained approximately $1.3 million through those applications, totalling at least $4.2 million obtained through the fraud.” The duo was arrested on April 5, 2024.
Oloyede, who holds dual nationalities pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 56 months in jail for his atrocities last week. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio in a statement on Tuesday, the monarch was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release after imprisonment and pay $4,408,543.38 in restitution. He is also to forfeit his Medina home on Foote Road, which he had acquired with proceeds of the scheme, and an additional $96,006.89 in fraud proceeds, which investigators have seized.
In essence, Oloyede may not get back to his throne until 2030, when he is likely to be deported after serving his jail term. Already, the Osun State Government has called for the certified true copy of the judgment to allow the state government make an informed decision on the matter.
This leads us back to the headline of this piece: Did Ifa fail the people of Ipetumodu? If Ifa had been truly consulted, perhaps, it would have revealed that the reign of Oba Oloyede would bring shame to the town. He may have been prevented from the throne of his forefathers and a new prince could have been chosen.
Now, a section of the town is saying that Oba Oloyede could not have been the choice of Ifa and that he most probably bought his way to the throne. One of those that kicked against his selection is Prince Ayoola, who said that the people of Ipetumodu are now ashamed and are finding it difficult to cope with the mockery from their neighbours following the jail term handed to their monarch by the US court.
Prince Ayoola, an 83-year-old retired Registrar who served at three different state-owned higher institutions – the Polytechnic of Ibadan, the Osun State Polytechnic, Iree, and the Osun State College of Science and Technology, Esa Oke – recalled warning the state government and kingmakers against the choice of the monarch in 2019. ‘’I warned the kingmakers back then to avoid picking the monarch in violation of Ifa’s choice, but they did not listen to me. The incarcerated monarch is not a member of our family. There were 13 contestants for the stool, but they jettisoned Ifa oracle and picked the embattled monarch according to their own wisdom. I went to court and challenged the kingmakers, the state government and the Attorney General without getting any reprieve. The gods of our land are the ones angry with him (monarch). He has never slept in the town’s palace for one day, and the sacrilege he has committed is pulling down the palace and exposing the bones of past monarchs, because it is a taboo to dig the ground of the palace. Sadly, he moved bulldozers to the place and destroyed the grounds of the palace, thus incurring the wrath of our progenitors. We are planning to replace him with someone who will be chosen by the Ifa oracle, since he is still alive, hence, we have the right to replace him. Nature abhors a vacuum, and the gods of the land have rejected him; his sentence is a blot on our family and the Ipetumodu community in particular. This is a sad development.”
Not too long ago, the selection of the new Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Akeem Owoade was marred in controversy, when the Oyo Mesi (Oyo Kingmakers) were alleged to have received N15 million each from one of the princes for him to emerge as the new Alaafin. The situation was so bad that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), had to quiz the Oyo kingmakers over allegations that they took bribes from one of the candidates to the vacant stool. In a viral video, Professor Wande Abimbola, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, and the Awise of Yorubaland – head of all Ifa oracle diviners – threw a bombshell when he affirmed that the Oyo State government contacted him on the divination process leading to the nomination of a new Aláàfin of Oyo. “I spent 10 days seeking the face of Ifá oracle and Ifá made its choice,” he said. Asked whom Ifá chose, the professor said it was Prince Owoade, the man announced by the Oyo State government. He claimed that upon the Ifá divinity’s choice, the kingmakers sought to persuade him to change his mind over it through many subterfuges, but he refused.
If the selection process of a Yoruba Oba could be so tainted in bribery and corruption, what is then left of our culture and tradition as a race? Obas and Chiefs are now selected based on who can give the biggest bribe to the kingmakers and even Ifa now seems can also be tempted with dollars.
But Oba Oloyede who is now serving jail term in the USA won’t be the first Yoruba Oba that would have spent time in disarray outside the shores of the country. The Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi, was once convicted in the USA and later deported. He was first arrested in Boston in 1998, after he tried to cash a stolen cheque for £247,000 from aviation company, Boeing. Akanbi, posing as a successful businessman called Joseph Pigott, was arrested when the cops were alerted by a suspicious bank teller at BankBoston. The Oluwo was also charged for forging a cheque for £59,000 using the name Thomas Eyring. He was reportedly jailed for 15 months and deported to Nigeria in April, 1999. His £1,500 fine was waived ‘because of an inability to pay’. Despite being banned from re-entering the US, he was again caught while attempting to cross the border in March, 2011. Akanbi was with his then-wife, Rakiya Saidu, and young son, and claimed that they were going to New York for shopping. Facing the prospect of a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and a £197,000 fine, Akanbi pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to time served, deported again, and banned from the US for life.
His former wife, Chanel Chin, also alleged that the Oba frequently smoked Indian hemp and posted a video on YouTube where the Oba was seen rolling Indian hemp. Chin, who has a son named Oduduwa with the King said during her interview that the Oluwo married her after raping and impregnating her while she was intoxicated.
There are several Obas who, upon ascending the throne, become monsters to their people. Many of them quickly assemble teams of thugs and street urchins to terrorise their subjects and forcefully take over their land.
Do we, as a nation, have any institution left that is spared from the corrosive influence of corruption? Politicians and civilian governments are corrupt. Soldiers and military governments are corrupt. Judges and the entire judiciary, including the Bar, are corrupt. Lawmakers are corrupt. Civil servants are the engine room of corruption. Imams and pastors are corrupt. The common man on the street is corrupt. Traditional rulers are corrupt. Everyone is corrupt, including journalists. Corruption oozes from every pore of our national life. But that Ifa, the Yoruba god of divinity, renowned for purity, has also now been cornered by corruption rankles me to the bone marrow!
Oba Oloyede, before his ascension to the throne, held prominent positions in both the Nigerian and American societies. A graduate of The Polytechnic of Ibadan, and a Master of Business Administration holder from the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, also pursued further education in the United States, earning another MBA and a Doctorate of Business Administration.
He had a career in finance and later, in the academia in the US, becoming a professor at institutions like the Indiana Wesleyan University and the University of Phoenix. How such an individual, with such pedigree, choose to get involved in financial fraud still beats me!
His conviction has reignited succession battles in the town, as Princes from the two ruling houses, Aribile and Fagbemokun, have begun intense lobbying of kingmakers for the throne.
Again, the kingmakers, led by the Asalu of Ipetumodu, Chief Sunday Afolabi, have also been holding series of meetings on the way forward. However, their decision may hinge on the stance of the Osun State Government, which has insisted it will await the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the US judgment before taking formal steps.
But in Nigeria, where ‘anything goes’, the Osun State governor and the kingmakers may not be too willing to replace Oloyede. If he is in the right political party, his sins may be forgiven. After all, we are in Nigeria, where anything goes.
See you next week.
