The palace of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has dismissed a 48-hour ultimatum issued by the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Abimbola Owoade, describing it as nothing more than “an empty threat from a dead empire.”
The Alaafin had ordered the Ooni to withdraw the Oluomo of Yorubaland title recently conferred on a business mogul, sparking yet another supremacy tussle between the two historic stools.
Reacting via social media on Tuesday, the Ooni’s spokesperson, Moses Olafare, ridiculed the ultimatum and accused the Alaafin’s camp of clinging to expired relevance.
“Ooni is busy setting up businesses and creating jobs for youths across Yorubaland; they are busy fighting supremacy that doesn’t exist. Dead empire!” Olafare wrote.
He added that while the Ooni is preparing to launch the Ojaja Smart City in Ibadan, billed as the biggest of its kind in Africa, his rivals are “busy issuing 48-hour empty threats over a title that doesn’t even exist.”
The comments mark the latest flare-up in the centuries-old rivalry between the two powerful thrones, once the pillars of Yoruba political authority.
