The Court of Appeal, Akure Division, on Thursday affirmed the judgement of the Ondo State High Court which removed Oba Lawrence Oluwole Babajide as the Oluoke of Oke-Igbo in the Ile-Oluji/Oke-Igbo Local Council Area of Ondo State. A three-member panel of justices unanimously dismissed the appeal filed by the deposed monarch for lacking in merit, thereby upholding the lower court's decision that his appointment violated the community's established customary chieftaincy laws.
The appellate court's decision effectively brings to a close a protracted legal battle over the throne of the ancient town, which began shortly after the Ondo State Government approved Babajide's appointment in 2018. The Ondo State Government had in 2018 approved the appointment of Oba Babajide Lawrence Oluwole as the Oluoke of Oke-Igbo, succeeding Oba Timothy Fasawe. However, the Aare Kugbaigbe Ruling House, through their counsel Chief Sola Ebiseni, challenged the appointment on the ground that Babajide Lawrence Oluwole belonged to the Bamgbala family, which is not part of Aare Kugbaigbe and was not nominated by the Ruling House.
The claimants further contended that the new traditional ruling quarter system through which Babajide was appointed, which sought to extend eligibility to the throne to several indeterminate families, was alien to the customary law of the community. According to the claimants, the community's custom recognises only the five ruling houses constituted by the descendants of the five founders of the community, which have historically produced the 16 rulers of the town.
In a judgement delivered by Justice Ademola Enikuomehin on 13 April 2023, the High Court upheld the case of the claimants and ordered the removal of Babajide Lawrence Oluwole as the Oluoke of Oke-Igbo. Dissatisfied with the ruling, the embattled monarch filed a Notice of Appeal on 17 April 2023 through his counsel, Olalekan Ojo, SAN. The notice was subsequently amended on 30 May 2025, incorporating 12 grounds upon which late Oba Babajide Lawrence prayed that the judgement of the lower court be set aside, among other grounds, because, by the decision of the Executive Council, the previous customary law as contained in the White Paper on the report of Justice Adeloye Commission of Inquiry no longer regulated appointment to the chieftaincy and that the judgement delivered more than three months ago was not valid.
While speaking to journalists following the Appeal Court judgement, the lead counsel to the new Oba, Chief Sola Ebiseni, declared that the ruling represented affirmation of the customary law of the Oluoke of Oke-Igbo chieftaincy as earlier established by Justice Enikuomehin. "The judgement is an affirmation of the customary law of the Olu-Oke of Oke-Igbo chieftaincy, as earlier found by His Lordship. It will further unite the ancient town."
The Appeal Court's lead judgement was delivered by Hon. Justice M.L. Hassan, with Hon. Justice P.O. Affen and Hon. Justice P.C. Obiorah concurring, and dismissed Appeal No: CA/AK/97/2023 in its entirety. Meanwhile, the Ondo State Government had approved the appointment of Oba Felix Adeoye Akintoye, a lawyer and former president of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), from the Aare Kugbaigbe Ruling House as the new Oluoke of Oke-Igbo.
