Oba Tajudeen Babatunde Omotosho Akanni Abioye Ekanoye Olukoye III has emerged as the 14th Onijabe of Ijabe Land in Odo Otin Local Government Area of Osun State.
His emergence followed his unanimous selection by the kingmakers and approval by the Osun State Government.
The new monarch was nominated as the sole candidate by the Abioye-Ekanoye Ruling House. The nomination received the endorsement of other recognised ruling houses and kingmakers in the community.
He succeeds the immediate past Onijabe, Oba Felix Olaniyan Oyeniyi Oyelade II, JP, who joined his ancestors on August 22, 2026.
The Osun State Executive Council, under the leadership of Governor Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke, approved his candidature on October 23, 2026. He was formally installed on October 24, 2026, as the 14th Onijabe of Ijabe Land.
Having successfully completed the traditional rites, Oba Abioye has now fully assumed the responsibilities of the revered traditional stool.
Oba Abioye, popularly known as TJ of Holland, is a prominent Nigerian businessman and philanthropist with investments spanning real estate, mining, hospitality, oil and gas, agriculture and education.
His emergence is significant against the background of longstanding legal disputes surrounding the Onijabe chieftaincy stool and the applicable customary law governing the selection of its occupants.
The 1955 registered Onijabe Chieftaincy Declaration remains the principal legal instrument regulating the nomination, selection and appointment of candidates to the throne, according to the Onijabe media directorate.
The matter had previously generated litigation involving the five recognised ruling houses, Folashade, Olukoye, Adekanye, Oyelade and Okunoye, versus four other families, namely Olukoyo Dodo, Obadoke, Alaase and Oloyede.
In Suit No. HIK/MISC 2/1997, the High Court of Justice, Ikirun, presided over by Justice R.A. Yusuff, dismissed an application seeking to compel the release of the report of the Okanlawon Panel of Inquiry established by the then Oyo State Government in 1990.
In Suit No. HIK/43/1997, Ganiyu Adelani Ajiboye and four others instituted an action against John Adedokun Adeyemi and others over the stool.
In a judgment delivered on April 25, 2017, Justice A.A. Aderibigbe upheld the position of the five recognised ruling houses under the 1955 Chieftaincy Declaration and granted a perpetual injunction against the recognition of the four disputed families as ruling houses entitled to present candidates for the Onijabe stool.
The judgment also affirmed that the registered 1955 Chieftaincy Declaration remained the applicable customary law governing the selection and appointment of the Onijabe, pending any lawful amendment.
The controversy resurfaced in 2018 when the then Osun State Government purportedly recognised the four disputed families as ruling houses and introduced an amended chieftaincy declaration.
Following a petition dated August 7, 2024, submitted to Governor Adeleke, the Osun State Executive Council set aside the purported 2018 amendment and restored the 1955 Chieftaincy Declaration as the governing instrument. The ruling houses subsequently filed a Notice of Discontinuance, bringing their litigation to an end.
The Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, disclosed that the Council, after setting aside the 2018 Amended Onijabe of Ijabe Chieftaincy Declaration and after reviewing the selection process for the emergence of the new king, approved the appointment.
“The Council approved the appointment of Babatunde Omotosho Tajudeen as the new Onijabe of Ijabeland with immediate effect,” the government stated.
The approval was part of a wider approval of traditional rulers by the Executive Council, including the elevation of some minor chiefs to Part II recognised chiefs and the approval of the report of a seven-man panel of inquiry on the Olu of Araromi-Owu chieftaincy crisis in Ayedaade Local Government Area.
However, not everyone accepts the decision. Ruling houses in Ijabe have approached the Osun State High Court to challenge the state government’s decision to set aside the 2018 Amended Declaration.
The application was filed in Suit No. HIK/2/2018 before the High Court, Okuku Judicial Division, by Tunde Ayodele Alabi, Samson Oladipupo, Ganiyu Opatola and Sulaimon Awoyeye, representing the Olukoyo Dodo, Obadoke, Alaase and Oloyede families of Ijabe.
The applicants contend that they are recognised royal families entitled to the Onijabe stool under the 2018 Amended Declaration.
In their Motion on Notice dated October 26, 2026, the applicants are seeking an order setting aside the proceedings, deliberations and decisions of the State Executive Council of October 23, 2026, as they relate to the Onijabe declaration and any selection or approval to the stool while the case is pending.
They also sought an order directing all parties to maintain status quo ante bellum by not approving or recognising any person as Onijabe pending determination of the substantive suit, and an order restraining the Governor of Osun State, the Attorney-General, Odo-Otin Local Government and its Chieftaincy Committee from taking further steps on the vacant stool.
The applicants argue that the 2018 Declaration remains the valid legal instrument for the selection and appointment of the Onijabe. They stated that the Osun State Government approved and registered the Amended Declaration on July 13, 2018, pursuant to Section 4(11) of the Chiefs Law, Cap. 25, Laws of Osun State, 2002, and published it in the State Official Gazette on July 26, 2018.
They alleged that while an injunction application is pending, the opposing parties influenced the Executive Council to set aside the declaration, an allegation yet to be determined by the court.
The court is yet to fix a date for hearing, while Oba Abioye has continued to occupy the ancestral throne as the 14th Onijabe of Ijabe Land.
