Tunde Odesola

In April 2025, woe wore a wear of shame on the Apetu of Ipetumodu, Oba Joseph Olugbenga Oloyede, in faraway United States, when he was indicted in a multimillion-dollar fraud case. Before his arrest and indictment, Oloyede, like the tail of the squirrel, swished his royal horsetail as he ate some American banana. Enveloped in the sweetness of the ripe banana, Oloyede unknowingly stepped on the tail of a coiled cobra by the banana tree, tragically setting off the trigger.

Blind to crown, deaf to creed, dumb to pedigree – the American legal system – silent but watchful, snapped p-a-a-h, its jaws slamming shut on Oloyede’s neck in a brutal metallic bite. “Ikún n j’ọ̀gẹ̀dẹ̀, ikún rèdí, ikún o mọ̀ wípé ohun tó dùn ma ń pani”.

Fast-forward to August 26, 2025. Nigerian cyberspace convulsed with a screaming headline, “Osun monarch jailed four years in US for $4.2m COVID-19 fraud.” The report, published in The PUNCH, was shocking. It was shocking to those who mistake the inevitable for surprise, like the case of a foolish husband running helter-skelter for financial help to buy baby care products when his wife gave birth after a nine-month pregnancy. Anyone who had followed the story since April knew that the August sentencing was a punitive arrow hitting the bull’s eye. By then, the concrete mix of justice poured in April had simply solidified by August.

You need no ‘kalokalo’ prophets or roadside imams or ‘sakamanje’ babalawos to foresee the gathering storm about to sweep off the Apetu throne. In America, justice is cheetah-fast. In Nigeria, justice is snail-slow. Oloyede mistook America for Nigeria and ended up in the belly of justice.

What did Alayeluwa Oba Oloyede steal? Kinni kabiyesi gbe gaan? Oloyede looted COVID-19 emergency funds created for struggling businesses, conspiring with one other criminal, Edward Oluwasanmi, to submit fraudulent applications for loans which were made available through the US Small Business Association (SBA), under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. In April, the Igbakeji Orisa pleaded guilty to wire fraud and tax fraud charges linked to a pandemic relief scam, which siphoned over $4.2m stimulus funds. Colleagues and townspeople thought that the àkàrà the Ori Ade was eating his pap with was tucked under the leaves enwrapping the àkàrà. No one suspected that the king was using a sickle to reach high tree branches outside his arm’s length. Ohun ọwọ́ mí ò tó, mà á fi gọ̀ngọ̀n fà á.

Before his enthronement as the Apetumodu of Ipetumodu in 2019, Oloyede, a chartered accountant and tax consultant, had worked with First Bank and Lead Merchant Bank in Nigeria, and relocated to the US in the late 1990s. In the US, he served as an adjunct professor at Indiana Wesleyan University and the University of Phoenix. Then, one night, greed knocked on the door of his heart, entered and showed him COVID-19 emergency funds. As Joseph the Dreamer resisted Potiphar’s wife, Joseph Oloyede could not resist the pounded yam and egusi served by greed.

Subsequently, Judge Christopher Boyko of the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio sentenced him to four years and eight months in prison, ordering him to pay $4.4m as restitution and forfeit his Medina mansion on Foote Road, Ohio. After imprisonment, the 63-year-old Oloyede will serve three years of supervised release, which means he will not be able to travel outside the US while on supervised release. And, going by the tone of the current US immigration policy, Oloyede, a naturalised US citizen, is most likely to lose his American passport after serving his term.

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On August 26, 2025, the day Oloyede received four sets of orange-coloured prison uniforms at the Federal Correctional Institution, Elkton in Lisbon, Ohio, alongside basic undergarments, footwear and bedding, I took to my Facebook account @Tunde Odesola, and predicted, “Expectedly, the Apetu of Ipetumodu, Oba Joseph Oloyede, would be dethroned. The Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrashidi Adewale Akanbi, should also be dethroned because what is sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander. Oluwo is an ex-convict in the US. He was slammed with two lifetime bans – to never enter the US. Osun State Governor, Asiwaju Ademola Adeleke, over to you.”

On Monday, May 11, 2026, worried by what was suspected to be a tactical delay by the Osun State Government to keep the throne vacant till the return of Oloyede from prison, I called on two persons in Osun to put the issue in perspective. The first person I called was a respected friend and honourable son of Ipetumodu. The second person I called, a top government official, was also an esteemed friend, renowned for a large dose of wit and wisdom.

At the end of our separate discussions, I told both of my friends that I was going to take the Adeleke government to the cleaners in my column on Friday, May 15, 2026. The government official friend gave me reasons for the delay in announcing the dethronement of the Apetu, citing legal and communal bottlenecks, adding that efforts were afoot to declare the throne vacant. My son-of-the-soil friend thanked me for sounding him out on the issue and wished me well in my writing endeavours. I also called a colleague who is close to both the Apetu and the community. So, the die was cast! I started to map out a mental graph of the article.

Alas, a few hours after I discussed with the three personalities, the Osun State Government announced the dethronement of Oloyede! My colleague sent the ‘breaking story’ to me. Ha! Is this a joke? I ran a quick check, and it was true. The dethronement is true. Was it painful that a game was snatched from my jaws? No. Was I happy? Yes. I was happy that the Adeleke government did the right thing, though late. Going by the threats by many indigenes of Ipetumodu, who have vowed not to vote for Adeleke in the governorship election coming up in three months, one is tempted to believe that the belated dethronement was a political stroke to gain the votes of Ipetumodu people. On the other hand, however, it took courage on the part of Adeleke to smash the calabash of a friend’s royal house, risking political antagonism three months before a historic election.

In the spirit of equity and fairness, a Yoruba translated proverb says, “The chieftaincy title that is due to the Iwo community will also be due to Ede.” On this note, I humbly call on Governor Adeleke to revisit the criminal cases of the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrosheed Adewale Akanbi, in the same United States of America, where he was jailed and deported. When the Englishman, in his intelligence, looked at the cases of Apetu and Oluwo and said, “What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander,” the Yoruba man, in his wisdom, responded, “Kò sí bí ọ̀bọ ṣe ṣe orí, tí ìnàkí ò ṣe.”

Running a banner headline, “Royal Exclusive: Harry and conman Nigerian king (Oluwo) twice deported from US,” British tabloid, The Mail on Sunday, in its May 19, 2024 edition, splashed the picture of the Oluwo of Iwo and Prince Harry on its cover, calling Akanbi a criminal, who wangled his way from being a fraudster to the royal stool of Iwo.

The headline and story of The Mail on Sunday were less acidic than that of The SUN, another British tabloid, which screamed, “Dodgy Royal: Nigerian king (Oluwo) who Harry called his ‘in-law’ is CONMAN jailed and deported after trying to cash stolen £247k cheque,” with the rider, “The Funky King was jailed 15 months in 1998.”

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Reporting a three-day visit of the 39-year-old Harry and his 42-year-old wife, Meghan, to Nigeria, THE SUN reveals Akanbi had been deported twice from the US and banned twice for life from entering the US.

THE SUN story reads, “But the Nigerian royal (Oluwo) is a convicted fraudster who was twice kicked out of America. He was allegedly first arrested in Boston in 1998 after he tried to cash a stolen cheque for £247,000 from the aviation company Boeing.

“Akanbi posed as a successful businessman called Joseph Pigott but cops were alerted by a suspicious bank teller at BankBoston. The conman (Oluwo) was also charged with forging a cheque for £59,000 using the name Thomas Eyring. He was also 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 then said to have been caught attempting to cross the border in March 2011. Akanbi was with his then-wife Rakiya Saidu, and young son and claimed they were going to New York to shop. 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 and banned from the US for life a second time.”

Anyone who believes Oluwo has a grain of integrity can get these stories by simply googling the headlines. Akanbi had kept mute despite my challenging him repeatedly to go to court to prove his integrity. I am not alone in calling the criminal Oluwo out; some of his royal colleagues had dragged him before courts on account of his fraudulent activities. In December 2016, the Oluwo of Iwo Oke, Oba Kadiri Adeoye, had dragged him before an Osogbo magistrate’s court, accusing him of forgery. In a 33-paragraph affidavit, Oba Adeoye deposed that Akanbi was unfit for the esteemed position of king.

Akanbi’s refusal to show up in court infuriated Magistrate Olusola Aluko, who issued a bench warrant and said, “I am baffled that the Commissioner of Police has not done his duty. I am also surprised by his claim that he was unaware of the bench warrant. This must be the joke of the century. I, therefore, order him (commissioner of police) to immediately arrest the respondent (Oluwo),” and bring him to court on January 6, 2017.

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Aluko’s order was sequel to another bench warrant made by an Iwo magistrate’s court headed by Mr I. Omisade, against Oba Akanbi, who sent one of his chiefs and a letter of apology to Aluko’s court on the following date of hearing, claiming he was indisposed.

Also, the Agbowu of Ogbaagba, Oba Dhikrullah Akinropo, had dragged Akanbi before another Osogbo magistrate’s court headed by Mr Olusegun Ayilara, alleging that the Oluwo was unfit for the position of king. This followed an alleged physical assault on the Agbowu by the Oluwo in 2020, but the Oluwo denied assaulting his colleague.

In June 2024, a leading anti-corruption and human rights group, Human and Environmental Development Agenda, called on Governor Adeleke to investigate Oluwo’s alleged criminal records, with a view to protecting the sanctity of the Iwo royal stool and the integrity of the Iwo community. A letter signed by HEDA’s chairman, Olanrewaju Suraj, said it behoved the state government to raise a special panel to investigate the criminal allegations against Akanbi.

In clear terms, HEDA said, “Traditional rulers are custodians of their people’s heritage and symbols of authority and respect. Traditional rulers must possess impeccable character and be above reproach.”

Oluwo’s continued stay on the throne has many far-reaching implications. One of them is the dangerous signals it sends to the younger generation. It queries the lesson our society teaches when standards shift according to influence. What morals are citizens expected to learn when the law dethrones the Apetu and cuddles the Oluwo, two monarchs whose conduct has been far from dignifying?

Young Nigerians already swim in the ocean of cynicism. They watch fraudsters become celebrities. They see convicted public officials receive traditional titles. They observe corrupt politicians welcomed into churches and mosques with front-row seats and thanksgiving ceremonies. They are confused by the invisible line separating heroes from villains. They are confused by felons who use religion as a tactic to gain public approval. The dethronement of Akanbi will elucidate and revalidate integrity over criminality in our society.

In the days of yore, the throne feared disgrace more than death itself. That was why once a king became an albatross upon the land, chiefs quietly delivered a covered calabash to him — a symbolic invitation to embrace honourable exit or death. Our forefathers understood a simple truth that seems lost on us today: a contaminated crown contaminates the kingdom. The spiritual effect of this is enormous. Only the deep can relate. Governor Adeleke, the Oluwo is a disgrace to the Omoluabi ethos of the Osun people. His calabash needs to be broken. Oluwo must go.

Email: tundeodes2003@yahoo.com

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