Awujale Throne: Family Protests Exclusion from Royal Lineage

The Adeyemi ruling house of the Anikilaya dynasty has strongly rejected its exclusion from the Anikilaya ruling house one of the royal families traditionally producing candidates for the stool of Awujale of Ijebuland, Ijebu Ode, Ogun State.
The Anikilaya ruling house produced the late Awujale, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, who passed away last month.
In a statement signed by Adedeji Ademola Adeyemi and made available to journalists on Sunday, the Adeyemi family accused some members of the dynasty of deliberately distorting history to erase their name from the royal lineage.
Adeyemi emphasized that Adeyemi Anikilaya was the eldest crown prince of the late Oba Anikilaya Saagun, alongside his brothers Ogbagba and Ademolu.
He recalled that in 1959, after the death of Oba Daniel Adesanya, Gbelegbuwa II, Prince Ademola Aiyegbajeje Adeyemi was selected for the Awujale throne but declined. His younger brother, Prince Mubashiru Adedipupo Adeyemi, then contested and successfully pushed forward his son, Sikiru Kayode Adetona of the Adeyemi Anikilaya family, who received the blessings of the kingmakers and was crowned Awujale in 1960.
The Adeyemi family therefore dismissed claims suggesting that they were not the eldest line, insisting that some members had wrongly assigned headship to the second-born and even included names of individuals who were not part of the dynasty.
“Putting the record straight, the Adeyemi ruling house rejects the inclusion of Mabadeje, Adekoya Ofirigidi, and Adeire Adeewu, who were never known as children of the late Oba Anikilaya Saagun Figbajoye, who reigned in 1821,” the statement read.
The family reaffirmed their identity as direct descendants of Adeyemi Anikilaya, the eldest son of Oba Anikilaya Saagun Figbajoye, and called on the public to disregard “false submissions” being circulated in the media by what they described as “misguided members” of the dynasty.