A vacation judge of the Ogun State High Court, Justice A.A. Omoniyi, has ordered that a suit filed by the Fusengbuwa Ruling House over the suspended selection process for the next Awujale of Ijebuland be returned to the administrative judge for reassignment.
Justice Omoniyi, who presided over Court 3 in Ijebu-Ode on Wednesday, said he would commence his annual vacation within the next week and might not resume judicial duties until January 2027.
The judge acknowledged the urgency of the suit, marked HCJ/149/2026 and filed on August 21, 2026, but said the limited time available before his vacation made it difficult for him to handle the matter.
He consequently ordered that the case file be returned to the administrative judge for reallocation to another judge. The matter was adjourned to September 23 for further hearing.
Earlier, counsel to the Fusengbuwa Ruling House, Olusegun Otayemi, informed the court that all 15 defendants had been served and that his clients were ready to proceed.
Kunle Kalejaiye (SAN), who appeared for the seventh to 15th defendants, comprising the kingmakers, said they were still within the period allowed by law to respond to the suit and would file their processes in due course.
State counsel W.A. Onawole also appeared for Governor Dapo Abiodun, the Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General, and other defendants.
The suit challenges the alleged suspension of the process for selecting a successor to the late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, who died in July 2025 at the age of 91 after 65 years on the throne.
Speaking with journalists after the proceedings, Otayemi said the ruling house approached the court because the selection process had allegedly been stopped after it had already commenced.
According to him, the family considers the alleged stoppage unnecessary and contrary to the provisions governing the selection of the traditional ruler.
“We’ve brought an action, essentially, because there was a stoppage of the selection process after it had been initiated,” Otayemi said, adding that the matter was urgent because Ijebuland had remained without an Awujale for an extended period.
Chairman of the Fusengbuwa Ruling House, Abdulateef Owoyemi, said the family had waited for about seven months for the process to resume before seeking judicial intervention.
He alleged that the process was halted following petitions and security reports which, according to him, had not been made available to the ruling house.
Owoyemi said the family had completed its internal nomination process within the period prescribed by law and expected the kingmakers to proceed with the next stage before the government intervened.
The ruling house is seeking several declarations and orders, including a determination of whether the Ogun State Government had the legal authority to halt or facilitate actions preventing the kingmakers from completing the statutory selection process.
It is also asking the court to determine whether the Ogun State Obas and Chiefs Law 2021 permits the government to suspend the nomination or selection process for the Awujale under any circumstance.
The claimants further want the court to affirm that the Fusengbuwa Ruling House fulfilled its statutory responsibility after conducting its nomination process within the period prescribed by law.
The defendants include Governor Abiodun, the Ogun State Executive Council, the state Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General, the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, the Secretary of Ijebu-Ode Local Government, and members of the Awujale Afobaje/Kingmakers Council.
The Awujale stool became vacant following the death of Oba Adetona in July 2025.
The state government subsequently halted the selection process in January 2026, citing petitions from security agencies and other stakeholders, following an earlier suspension over alleged procedural concerns.
A total of 95 aspirants, comprising 94 princes and one princess, reportedly emerged from the Fusengbuwa Ruling House nomination exercise held in Ijebu-Ode in December 2025 before the selection process was suspended.
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