The head of Seriki ruling line in Ibadan, Chief Adebayo Oyediji has said  he is the next person to be installed as Olubadan, not the Balogun Olubadan, High Chief Saliu Adetunji.

But the newly appointed Olubadan designate, High Chief Saliu Adetunji in a separate interview with this newspaper said there is no  Seriki ruling in Ibadan.

Chief Oyediji said this when he spoke breifly with Naij.com at his residence in Monatan area of Ibadan on Friday, January 22.

He said it was the turn of the Seriki ruling line to become king of the city following the death of two High Chiefs: Omiyale (Balogun Line) and Kuye (Otun Line), the room was open to the Seriki line to present their candidate as the third line in Ibadan land.

Naij.com: You are laying claims to the throne of the Olubadan, specifically, how are you the next in line to become the Olubadan?

It’s a matter of line. In Ibadan from time immemorial, Seriki ruling line has produced several including the very first Olubadan, Oba Aleshinloye Abass, Aare latosa, Baale Irefin and he became Baale of Ibadan, Baale Akintayo and it has been like that since ever since Ibadan was founded.

Until in 1959 when they made a new cheiftancy declaration which is called Eekrin Balogun cheiftancy declaration. They stated for the first time that seriki can only become Olubadan by crossing to Eekrin Balogun line only if there are simultaneous vacancies. That is, only if Eekrin Balogun and Asipa Balogun dies at the same time.

We wrote several letters to the Olubadan and Olubadan-in-council when we saw this, but when nothing was done, we had no choice but to go to court. We went to court in 1988 and when the matter was in court, several witnesses came up at the court on our behalf and when the chiefs saw the weight of the evidence, they decided that we settle out of court, I didn’t want to accept before but I don’t want to be seen as a trouble maker, we settled out of court.

We wrote a term of settlement and we stated that the proviso in the 1959 cheiftancy declaration should be removed and henceforth the Seriki will be entitled to cross to Eekrin Olubadan and Eekrin Balogun and that will start with the promotion of the Seriki to the next available vacant post.

“But some chiefs went to the Ibadan high court and asked the court to set aside the consent Judgment but then we appealed and the judgment sort by the chiefs was set aside. The Olubadan in council appealed at the Supreme Court but it was struck out.

“We returned to the high court in Ibadan to seek implementation of the new judgment abd the court ruled that any vacany in Otun Olubadan, Eekerin Olubadan, Asipa Olubadan, Osi Olubadan up till the title of Olubdan itself should not be filled until after the case has been concluded. The court also restril the filling of the vacancy for the title of Eekerin Balogun, Asipa Balogun, Osi Balogun up to Balogun himself.

Now, on the first of January this year, they purported to have filled all these vacancies and that was what caused the initial clash with the governor. So we are back in court asking that those vacancy filled should be set aside because it was made contrary to the order of the court.

Naij.com: You have gone to court now, what are you seeking from the court?

We are demanding for justice. The governor should call upon the Olubadan-in-council to appoint the leader of the Seriki to be appointed as the next Olubadan. The consent judgment should be allowed to see the light of the day. Thank you.