A warrant for the arrest of a first-class traditional ruler in the state, the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi has been issued by an Osun state magistrate court on Tuesday .
This arrest warrant was issued following the refusal of the monarch to honour a court summons issued in November to answer to a suit filed against him by another monarch, the Oluwo of Iwo-Oke, Oba Kadiri Adeoye.
In his suit, Oba Adeoye had accused the Oluwo of Iwo of concealing some facts about his past before he was installed as a first class monarch about a year ago. The Oluwo of Iwo was accused of keeping armed thugs, miscreants and hoodlums around to harass, intimidate, molest and attack persons whom he perceived as his enemies. The affidavit also alleged that the monarch was involved in internet fraud commonly referred to as ‘Yahoo-Yahoo’ and operated from within his palace.
The plaintiff further claimed that Oba Akanbi forged his name to obtain travelling documents to the United States where he was jailed in New York City and deported to Nigeria in year 2000. Oba Akanbi later travelled out with his real name to Canada in 2001 and became a Canadian citizen but was also arrested in Toronto and was in jail between 2006 and 2007.
But Oba Akanbi reacted to these allegations in describing the application filed against the Oluwo of Iwo by Oba Adeoye as “scandalous, vexations and designed to embarrass, blackmail and ridicule the monarch in the view of right thinking members of the society”.
The absence of the monarch in court to defend himself however made the chief magistrate to rule that “I hereby issue a bench warrant against the first respondent while further proceeding on the matter is adjourned to December 27, 2016.”