Sunday Igboho Warns Against Any Move to Dethrone the Olubadan

Sunday Igboho Warns Against Any Move to Dethrone the Olubadan

A video warning shakes Ibadan politics

Yoruba nation agitator Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, has warned against any alleged plot to dethrone the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja. In a video that circulated widely on social media, Igboho, who is also the founder of the private security network Iru Ekun, said anyone who attempts to remove or attack the monarch will face resistance.

Fayose's X post lit the fuse

The controversy traces back to a post on X by former Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose, who wrote that he heard reliably that Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde was plotting the removal of the Olubadan. According to the claim, the move would begin with an official government query against the monarch over his absence at a planned coronation of high chiefs in Ibadanland. The allegation was widely picked up by Nigerian media in April 2026.

"We will disrupt everywhere"

Igboho's response was blunt. "Any governor who attempts to remove Olubadan, we will disrupt everywhere, and they will declare a state of emergency in Oyo State that same day. No one should dare to attack the Olubadan," he said. Reacting separately to claims of a plan to waylay or ambush the monarch, he added: "It should remain a gossip. You cannot go and ambush him. Even when he is not yet Olubadan, you dare not, not to talk of now that he is on that seat." In another account of the same remarks, he warned: "One million of you dare not try it."

Government and palace both deny the plot

The Makinde administration has denied the allegation. The state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Dotun Oyelade, said the government had neither considered nor discussed removing the monarch. Makinde and Ladoja, speaking through their media aides, described the reported dethronement plot as unfounded rumour and baseless.

A 44th Olubadan with a rare profile

Ladoja was crowned the 44th Olubadan of Ibadanland at Mapo Hall on September 26, 2025, following the death of the 43rd Olubadan, Oba Olakulehin Owolabi. He marked his 82nd birthday on September 25, 2026, and his first coronation anniversary on September 26, 2026. A former senator, former governor, businessman and political survivor, he brought executive experience in modern government to the palace, something Ibadan had not seen before in a traditional ruler.

Chieftaincy reform lies behind the tension

The row sits on top of years of turbulence in the Ibadan chieftaincy system. After the Oyo State Government reviewed the chieftaincy law and elevated high chiefs to the status of beaded-crown Obas, Ladoja took a lonely stand, refusing to wear a beaded crown and insisting that the Olubadan must remain the only Imperial Majesty in Ibadanland. In April 2026 he inaugurated the Ibadan Community Guards, an initiative meant to complement conventional security agencies across the eleven local government areas of Ibadanland.

Pressure builds for a formal government response

For now the matter rests between a viral claim, a fierce warning, and official denials. What comes next is whether any government query against the monarch actually materialises, whether the palace issues a fuller public statement, and whether the uneasy balance between the Oyo State Government and Ibadan's traditional institution steadies or frays further.