EXCLUSIVE: Iwo monarch fights back, threatens magistrate with “traditional warrant of arrest”

A brewing crisis between the Oluwo of Iwo, Abdulrasheed Akanbi, and an Osun State Chief Magistrate, Olusola Aluko, took a dramatic turn as the monarch threatened to issue a “traditional warrant of arrest” on the judge for daring to denigrate the Oluwo stool with bench warrant which he issued on Tuesday.

The monarch who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES on Friday, said the warrant of arrest was a nullity because it was aimed at disrespecting his office as an Oba and was based on frivolous allegations.

He argued that he had not done anything wrong to warrant the treatment by the magistrate, saying the judge was paid to issue the order.

Mr. Aluko had on Tuesday ordered the monarch’s arrest for refusing to appear in person to face charges of fraud against him.

The court had on November 25 ordered the monarch to appear before it in a case filed by the Oluwo of Iwo-Oke, Kadiri Adeoye, alleging fraud against him.

At Tuesday’s sitting, while the applicant was in court, Mr. Akanbi was conspicuously absent, in defiance of the order of the court, although he sent another monarch, Ologburo of Ogburo, Asimiyu Sadiq, to represent him.

“On the order of the court made on November 25, 2016, the order remained. I hereby issue a bench warrant against the first respondent while further proceeding on the matter is adjourned to December 27, 2016,” the magistrate stated, after listening the counsels of both parties.

The Oluwo, however, noted that the warrant of arrest was “an insult and a disrespect” to the traditional stool.

“The magistrate is a disgrace to the judiciary. He should be probed by the authorities,” he said.

“The allegations on which he issued the warrant have not been investigated before issuing a warrant of arrest.

“I have also decided to issue a traditional warrant of arrest against him, so that he will know the powers of the Oba.”

He argued that in the suit filed, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Fimihan Adeoye, who is the second respondent, had not attended the court, but sent his representative, just as he had ensured his representative was always in court.

“If the commissioner of police can send a representative to the court to represent him, why should I not be represented,” he said.

The monarch alleged that the magistrate was corrupted to issue the warrant just to tarnish his name.

Mr. Adeoye had approached the Magistrate Court accusing Mr. Akanbi of concealing some facts about his past to the state government when he was installed as a first class monarch about a year ago.

In a 33-paragraph affidavit, he accused Mr. Akanbi of having used armed thugs to harass and attack persons whom he perceived as his enemies.

He further alleged that the Iwo monarch forged his name to obtain travel documents to the United States where he was allegedly jailed in New York City and deported to Nigeria in year 2000.

He added that Mr. Akanbi later travelled out with his real name to Canada in 2001 and became a Canadian citizen but was also arrested in Toronto and was in jail between 2006 and 2007.

“These facts were concealed for the state government which appointed and installed him as the Oluwo of Iwo,” the suit read.

He also accused him of presently making money through internet fraud and using his palace as a cover-up.

Mr. Akanbi reacted to these allegations in a 13 paragraph affidavit through the Aremo of Iwo land, Adelani Akanbi, describing the application as “scandalous, vexations and designed to embarrass, blackmail and ridicule the monarch in the view of right thinking members of the society.”

The embattled monarch also told PREMIUM TIMES on Friday that all the allegations made against him were as “worthless as a tissue paper.”

“The magistrate was paid to smear my name after they have failed to rope me in a murder case,” he said.

“Go and find out, Aluko is the single magistrate that is often used for dirty jobs, he should be investigated.

“They are using the Oluwo of Iwo-Oke to do this job, a monarch that is under me, who cannot even read or write. I have 32 monarchs under me, and most of them are supporting me.”

PREMIUM TIMES contacted the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Adeoye, on the bench warrant, but he would not give details.

When pressed about it, he said he would contact his legal department to find out if the arrest warrant had been received.

Further calls to get the details failed to yield any results.