The Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, disclosed in a viral TikTok video on Sunday that he was chased away during a visit to the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi.
Speaking, the Ooni of Ife said, “When I visited Oluwo, he chased me out like a child, since that incident, I have always maintained myself going close to him. Now that you people (attendees) are imploring that I visit him again, what if he does what he likes to me?
“But I have to contain his excesses as an elder, although I am a young person sitting on the throne of the elders. Oluwo, I greet you.”
Although Ogunwunsi neither revealed the location where it happened nor spoke on any feud between him and Oluwo of Iwo in the viral video as both are respected monarchs in Osun State, findings revealed that Oluwo has not been pleased with Ooni’s relationship and activities with the traditionalists who he described as ‘idols worshippers’.
In another video, Akanbi popularly called Telu 1 was seen telling the people of Iwo to detest traditional practices warning that anybody indulging in it should do so in their respective homes.
“My work as a monarch is to stand for God and preach about him alone while challenging those worshipping things other than Him. I don’t do Ogun or any idol festival. Although, I have previously celebrated the Egungun festival with the worshippers but I will never do that again. Except that they don’t call it idol worshipping. I don’t support their activities, that’s why their dealings don’t thrive here.
“And you cannot even perform sacrifices in Iwo here. Anyone who does that will eat it. Better still, litter your house with the sacrifices. Environmental sanitation has been exercised here to curb things like that. What anyone would need to be successful is to challenge the idols and their worshippers. That alone would make you a soldier of God,” he added.
Continuing, Oluwo in his Facebook post on Monday clarified that Iwo used to be ruled by a traditional monarch but has ceased being that since the emergence of Oba Memudu Ayinla Lamuye in 1800 who spread Islam in the town as the monarch converted the whole Iwo people to Islam.
He wrote, ”Oba Ibirinade Abioye Adekanbi (Alawusa) brought Islam in 1600. He evacuated idols and converted a place of worshipping deities to the Oluwo Central Mosque. Precisely, he birthed the first Mosque in South Western Nigeria in 1600. Later in the late 1800, another Oluwo, Oba Memudu Ayinla Lamuye (pictured above) spread Islam and converted the whole Iwo people to Islam and that’s why in Iwo, every compound has a Mosque and there is no Iwo indigene that does not have a Muslim name including recent convertees when the missionaries came.
“Oba Ibirinade Adekanbi was also called Alawusa because he was hospitable. He accommodated Malians who people tagged Hausa then they came to settle in Iwo. Oluwo was turbaned. New Oluwo used to be enthroned with a beaded crown before 1600. After 1600, turbanning used to come first before wearing the beaded crown. Oba Muhammad Ayinla Lamuye spent 90 years on the throne. Exactly 100 years after, the reigning Oluwo, was enthroned to complete the good work of the past monarchs.”
Recall that Akanbi in 2018 alleged that Ogunwusi ordered his bodyguard to push him out of the way during a meeting of traditional rulers in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital.
According to Akanbi, the incident happened at Hotel Presidential in the oil-rich city. He said it happened just as the Ooni was called to the podium to give a vote of thanks.
“The bodyguard of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, in what seemed to be an errand message, pushed Oluwo at the public gathering of the first-class paramount rulers held at the Presidential Hotel, Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State last Tuesday,” Akanbi said in a statement.
“Dignitaries at the event were taken aback by what they considered as a desecration of the crown as the bodyguard of the Ooni pushed a first-class paramount ruler, Oluwo.
But the Ooni denied the allegation in a statement that the director of public affairs at his palace, Moses Olafare, issued on his behalf.
Ogunwunsi described the claims of the Oluwo as untrue, saying, “There was no altercation between Oluwo and anybody at that venue at all.”
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