Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, on Friday, the 12th of September, 2025, instructed the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Mr. Dosu Babatunde, to intervene in the escalating dispute over the Apetumodu stool, following the conviction of Oba Joseph Oloyede in the United States.
The directive came as divisions deepened within Ipetumodu. Some residents insisted the throne should remain vacant until the monarch returns, while others pressed for the immediate selection of a successor.
Oba Oloyede, who is the 27th Apetumodu of Ipetumodu, received a prison sentence of more than four years in the U.S. after being found guilty of COVID-19 loan fraud. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio confirmed his sentencing in a statement issued on the 26th of August, 2025, revealing that the monarch and an accomplice defrauded pandemic relief programmes under the CARES Act between April 2020 and February 2022.
He was also directed to surrender assets and pay over $4.4 million in restitution.
Since the ruling, the town has remained unsettled, with pressure mounting on the state government to determine the monarch’s status. Until Adeleke’s directive, the only official response from the state was Babatunde’s remark that the government awaited a Certified True Copy of the judgment before taking further steps.
At Friday’s State Executive Council meeting, where ministries presented progress reports and received new instructions, Adeleke broke his silence, ordering Babatunde to “take action on the ugly development at Ipetumodu where the King was recently jailed in the United States of America.”
The council also discussed other key policy areas. According to the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Mr. Kolapo Alimi, in a statement released in Osogbo on Saturday, the 13th of September, urged the Ministry of Science and Innovations to speed up the rollout of both the State ICT Policy and the State Tech Innovation Policy.
He praised the Imole Wifi Initiative and further directed the ministry to design a roadmap for Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain applications in Osun.
On agriculture, Adeleke pushed for the rapid expansion of the Statewide Youth Agropreneurship programme across all local governments, beyond its launch point in Oriade.
The governor also stressed the need to accelerate sports legislation, instructing close collaboration with the House of Assembly to move forward bills establishing the Osun Sports Commission, the Police Trust Fund, and the Osun Sports Development Fund.
Alimi added that Adeleke tasked each local government with producing a development plan aligned with the state’s wider agenda. The Chief of Staff and the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning are to coordinate with ALGON to drive the process.
He also emphasized quality control for the Imole Youth Corps scheme, noting that deployed corps members must be properly monitored.
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The statement further quoted Adeleke as saying the government’s climate change initiatives were drawing recognition locally and internationally, with hopes of attracting donor funding. He also called for stronger data collection systems, stressing that “as we move towards the election period, we need statistics and data on our performance across various sectors of the state economy.
We should start to generate our governance data. The agency in charge of statistics and data in the state should sit up. The agency in question must work in line with modern best practices.”
Meanwhile, tensions over the Apetumodu stool flared on Tuesday, the 9th of September, during a meeting of princes in Ipetumodu. The gathering, held in the palace and chaired by the Asalu of Ipetumodu, Chief Sunday Adedeji.
He was calm until a prince demanded that Adedeji, as the senior surviving kingmaker, write to Governor Adeleke declaring the throne vacant.
Adedeji refused and stepped back from the matter, a decision that triggered heated exchanges. The meeting, which began at 4 p.m., broke down by 6 p.m. amid shouting.
Speaking after the session, Olaboye Ayoola from the Aribile Ruling House expressed frustration over Adedeji’s stance. He explained, “During the meeting, we all decided that two new kingmakers should be elected to replace the deceased ones, and a letter was written to the governor declaring the seat vacant. But Chief Adedeji refused, insisting we won’t do that. He also announced he was no longer interested in being a kingmaker. That led to chaos, and the meeting ended without any resolution.”
When approached for clarification, Adedeji admitted rejecting the proposal but kept his response brief: “It is true. Peace has to reign first.”