An Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan has held that a bona fide section of a ruling family cannot be excluded from its entitlement to a traditional position, declaring that the Alabi section of the Labosinde family has an equal right with the other sections to produce the Oluwo Afobaje of Ibadanland.

Justice Babatunde Olawoyin of Oyo State High Court 8 delivered the judgment on Wednesday in Suit No. I/720/2022, instituted by Alhaji Ramoni Alabi on behalf of the Alabi section of the Labosinde family against Alhaji Abdul Wahab Idowu Popoola of the Mosadogun section and Alhaji Waheed Babalola of the Babalola-Onifade section.

The dispute arose from the selection of the Oluwo Afobaje of Ibadanland, a traditional position reserved for the Labosinde family.

The Oluwo Afobaje performs significant traditional functions in Ibadanland, including the peak traditional rites associated with the installation of an Olubadan of Ibadanland.

The Alabi section approached the court after alleging that it had repeatedly been denied the opportunity to produce the Oluwo Afobaje by the other two sections of the family.

According to the case presented before the court, the Alabi section had been excluded from producing the holder of the position since 1971.

Delivering judgment, Justice Olawoyin held that the evidence presented by the claimant outweighed that placed before the court by the defendants.

The court further pronounced that Alabi was one of the bona fide children of Labosinde and that the Alabi section consequently possessed the same entitlement to the Oluwo Afobaje position as the Mosadogun and Onifade-Babalola sections.

Justice Olawoyin therefore held that the Alabi section has every right to occupy the traditional position and should not be excluded from the succession arrangement within the Labosinde family.

The court consequently ordered that upon the exit of the incumbent Oluwo Afobaje of Ibadanland, Chief Wahab Popoola of the Mosadogun section, the Alabi section must be allowed to produce his successor.

The judgment effectively resolves the dispute over which section of the Labosinde family is entitled to produce the next Oluwo Afobaje and recognises the Alabi section as a legitimate component of the family with an equal right to the position.

By the order of the court, the succession to the stool after the incumbent is no longer open to the exclusion of the Alabi section, as the court expressly directed that the next Oluwo Afobaje of Ibadanland should emerge from that section of the Labosinde family.

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