The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has disowned a claim by a young man in a viral video who said the revered monarch was his father.
In the video, the self-acclaimed royal son who was dressed in an all-white ‘Agbada’ and spoke in Yoruba language, claimed the monarch hid him with his mother with an instruction that he should never reveal his identity.
“Oba Enitan Ogunwunsi is my father. He hid me with my mother with a clear instruction that I must not reveal myself,” the man said.
He added that the Ooni’s refusal to recognize him as a royal prince compelled him to make the public video.
“Anytime I desire to come to the palace, he (Ooni) would stop me saying it was not yet time. Now is the time. My mum might not talk, but I will say the truth. The king is my biological father.
“Though I’m not suffering, there is a house, cars are there, there is money, but I’m no longer interested in them. I want to be known as the son of the king, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II,” he insisted, before giving the monarch a two-month ultimatum to be invited to the palace and given the recognition as a prince or he would be forced to reveal more secrets.
But in a reaction to the scandal, the Ooni’s spokesperson, Moses Olafare, in a statement on Thursday,
said the man in the viral video was an impostor who was ‘engaged in an act of impersonation’.
Olafare who said the matter had been reported to the security agencies for further action, stated that Oba Ogunwusi was a responsible father and custodian of tradition who knew and acknowledged all his children and would stop at nothing to take full responsibility for them.
“Our attention has been drawn to an amateur video clip featuring a grown-up individual claiming to be a son of our father, Arole Oodua Olofin Adimula, Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja ll, the Ooni of Ife, virally trending across various online platforms,” Olafare said in the statement.
“We categorically condemn and denounce this shameless act of impersonation in the strongest possible terms.
“It is imperative to clarify that the Ooni of Ife, as a responsible father and custodian of tradition, knows and acknowledges all his children and stops at nothing to take full responsibility for them (both those who are in Nigeria and outside the country).
“As all of Ooni’s children are well known to the palace and the people of Ile-Ife, the eldest child of the Ooni is Princess Adeola Ogunwusi, a Masters degree holder working and residing in Canada, followed by Princess Adewamiwa Ogunwusi, who recently relocated to further her education in Dublin, Ireland, from where she had come three years ago for her secondary school education in her home country, Nigeria.
“Princess Adesewa is doing very well, Prince Tadenikawo Ogunwusi is widely known to be with his mother, hale and hearty while the newborn twins, Prince Adebisi Kehinde and Princess Taiwo Adeayo, are being planned to formally make their historic entry into the palace in a couple of days, in accordance with the customs and traditions of the Ife palace.
“His marauding impersonation tactics to exploit the revered status of the Ooni of Ife for fraudulent personal gains is not only sacrilegious but also criminal.
“Impersonation of any member of the royal family is a sacrilege against the sanctity of the palace and the heritage it represents.
“While the palace leaves no stone unturned to go after this criminal using all possible means to scapegoat him, with a view to making him face the law for necessary deterrence, we hereby urge the law enforcement agencies, particularly the Nigerian Police Force and Department of State Security to thoroughly investigate this matter and bring the perpetrator to justice as swiftly as possible.
“He is not a child of Ooni Ogunwusi as fraudulently claimed and also never related in any way to any lineage of the Ogunwusi royal family and the Giesi royal compound of Ile-Ife at large,” Olafare stated.
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