A traditional chief of the Ooni of Ife, High Chief Kayode Awofiranye, has admitted that the late Ooni Adesoji Aderemi granted the land now known as Agbonbiti village in Ife South Local Government Area of Osun State to the family of late Chief Samuel Adetunji Adewuyi.
The traditional chief, who was called as a defendants/counter-claimants’ witness in the case between the family of late Chief Adewuyi and the Ife Traditional Council, stated this before Justice M. O. Agboola of the Osun State High Court on Wednesday.
The Adewuyi family had dragged the Ife Traditional Council before the court in suit number HFT/5/2024 over ownership of Agbonbiti Village in Ile-Ife.
The claimants – Prince Adegbenga Adewuyi, Prince Adediji Adewuyi, Prince Adefemi Adewuyi, Prince Adeposi Adewuyi and Prince Adegboye Adewuyi, for themselves and on behalf of the late Prince Samuel Adetunji Adewuyi family, are asking the court to declare that Agbonbiti Village in Ife South Local Government, covered by a survey map dated 15th April, 1966 and composite survey plan dated 29th February, 2024, belongs exclusively to their family.
Joined as 1st to 4th defendants are Oba Babatunde Enitan Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ife; Oba Jimoh Ajayi, the Ologudu of Ogudu, Ife; Barrister Funminiyi Adeyemi Adetise; and Prince Siji Adefarakan.
The claimants said the land became their exclusive property by virtue of a grant by the late Ooni, Oba Adesoji Aderemi, who was the younger brother of late Chief Samuel Adetunji Adewuyi, and has since ceased to be part of Ife communal land.
In their defence, the defendants argued that Ife communal land is not vested in the stool of the Ooni absolutely but held in trust for the Ife community, and that all grants must be done in conjunction with the Ife Traditional Council.
They described the purported grant of Agbonbiti by Oba Aderemi to his brother as a personal transaction.
The defendants, in their counter-claim, asked the court to declare that Agbonbiti Village, being communal land, belongs to Ile-Ife and is vested in the Ooni and the Ife Traditional Council only as trustees.
At the resumed hearing of the matter on Wednesday, the defendants/counter-claimants’ counsel, Adebusola Adedoyin, told the court that Awofiranye, in his statement on oath deposed to on February 3, 2025, referred to some documents which he wished to tender.
The plaintiffs’ counsel, O. N. Babatunde, did not object to the defence counsel’s request.
Meanwhile, Babatunde, while cross-examining the traditional chief, asked if Ooni Adesoji Aderemi granted the land in dispute to the Adewuyi family, to which the witness answered, “Yes, he gave them and also granted land to others.”
The traditional chief also confirmed that the land granted to the claimants is called Agbonbiti and that till date, neither he nor anybody has fought the Adewuyi family over the said land.
“Yes, we have not quarrelled with the Adewuyi’s on the land,” he told the court.
He further admitted that the grant of Agbonbiti has not been revoked till date and also agreed that there is a saying in Ife that “Ooni does not die, he only changes name.”