Supremacy Battle Rocks Osun State Council of Obas as Ataoja and Oluwo Clash Over Ranking

A supremacy battle is threatening to destabilise the Osun State Council of Obas as the Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Oyetunji, and the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrosheed Akanbi, remain locked in a bitter dispute over who occupies the fourth position in the hierarchy of monarchs.

The tussle has spilled beyond palace walls into the digital space, with loyalists of both monarchs defending their rulers on social media. Ataoja’s supporters insist that Osogbo’s status as state capital confers a higher ranking that should not be relegated, while Oluwo’s camp argues that the Iwo throne predates Osogbo and carries greater ancestral weight.

The latest confrontation resurfaced during a lecture at Osun State University to mark Ataoja’s 15th coronation anniversary, where Oba Oyetunji claimed that his stool historically occupied the fourth position in the Council but was wrongly ceded to Oluwo during the reign of his predecessor, Oba Iyiola Matanmi III. He stressed that he was not fighting any monarch but only asserting the historical rights of the Ataoja stool.

Reacting, Oluwo fired back through his Chief Press Secretary, Alli Ibraheem, accusing Ataoja of attempting to distort Yoruba history. He maintained that the Oluwo crown flows directly from Oduduwa, the progenitor of the Yoruba race, dismissing Ataoja’s crown as recent and politically influenced.

Tensions deepened following reports of a clash between the two monarchs at a recent Council of Obas meeting. With the absence of senior monarchs including the Ooni of Ife, Ataoja presided until Oluwo arrived. Disagreement over who should lead disrupted the meeting until order was restored and later settled by the Ooni.

While Ataoja’s secretary, Bello Oyewale, insisted that Osogbo’s monarch was recognised as fourth in the Council when Osun was created in 1992, the Iwo Board of Trustees rejected the claim, urging Governor Ademola Adeleke to compel Ataoja to apologise.

In a conciliatory appeal, the Asiwaju of Osogbo, Justice Moshood Adeigbe (retd.), called for restraint and reconciliation, warning that peace in the state must not be compromised by a hierarchy dispute among royal fathers.