Two officials of the Fusengbuwa ruling house in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, have said they will not honour an invitation from the Department of State Services (DSS) over the alleged sale of nomination forms to aspirants to the Awujale of Ijebuland throne.
The DSS invited the Chairman of the ruling house, Abdulateef Owoyemi; the Deputy Chairman, Oladokun Ajidagba; and the Vice Chairman, Prof Fassy Yusuf, to its Abeokuta office on Thursday.
The Awujale stool has been vacant since the death of Oba Sikiru Adetona in July 2025, after 65 years on the throne.
According to a letter circulating online, signed by one Yemi Oloto, the officials were asked to meet the State Director of Security at the DSS office in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, at 4pm on Thursday.
The letter said the meeting was in connection with an investigation into “the sale of expression-of-interest forms to interested princes for the vacant stool of Awujale of Ijebuland.”
Ajidagba told Punch that he received the letter at about 2.30 pm, barely two hours before the meeting, but would not appear because the matter was before the courts.
“There was, however, no way I could honour such an invitation when all of these matters are already in court. The status quo must be allowed to remain; that is the position of the law,” he said
Yusuf, a lawyer and professor of mass communication, said he was in Abuja over a case at the Supreme Court.
“I just received the letter from the DSS not long ago, but I am in Abuja attending to a matter at the Supreme Court. I have discounted their letter,” he said.
The development comes after the Ogun State Police Command twice summoned the nine Ijebu-Ode kingmakers and the three ruling house officials to Eleweran, Abeokuta, over allegations of bribery and inducement in the selection of a new Awujale.
Owoyemi has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
The three officials have also gone to court to challenge the state government’s suspension of the selection process in January.
In a suit, HCJ/149/2026, filed on August 21, 2026, at the High Court in Ijebu-Ode, they sued Governor Dapo Abiodun; the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Oluwasina Ogungbade (SAN); the State Executive Council; the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Ganiyu Hamzat; and the Secretary of Ijebu-Ode Local Government.
The nine members of the Awujale Afobaje/Kingmakers Council, led by Olorogun Sonny Kuku, were also joined as defendants.
The claimants want the court to compel the completion of the selection process and determine whether the government acted lawfully when the Awujale Palace was allegedly locked on January 20, 2026, to stop the kingmakers from concluding the process.
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