…Oluwo to Ooni: You plotted with my ex-wife to poison, kill me
…Ooni to Oluwo: I hope you reported to the police
By Obinna Uballa
The age-long rivalry between the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, and the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi, has once again escalated into an open war of words, with fresh allegations of betrayal, conspiracy, and attempted murder now dominating the feud.
In a video posted on Instagram on Tuesday, Oba Akanbi accused the Ooni of colluding with his former wife, Chanel Chin, to poison and kill him while they were married. Chin, a Canadian-born daughter of Jamaican reggae star Ludlow “Bobo Zaro” Chin, separated from the Oluwo in December 2019 after three years of marriage.
“He (Ooni) was looking for my downfall, and the next thing, they packaged a woman for me. She poisoned me twice, there were assassination attempts, and they set me up in many ways,” Oluwo alleged. “She even had a child that I’m not sure is mine; I will confirm that with DNA. After I found out the secret, I sent her away, and it was Ooni who accommodated her.”
The monarch further claimed that Ooni was plotting against him to cover up his own role in helping him ascend the Ife throne. He alleged that the Ooni also had an affair with his former wife at a hotel and rented a house for her afterwards.
“If a wife was planted in your home to kill you, and she tried but failed, would the fight ever end?” he asked. “This is why this fight will continue. No one can kill me, not even their gods. Only God determines when I will die.”
The Oluwo insisted that as a paramount ruler in Osun, he could not be suspended by the Ooni or undermined by other traditional rulers.
But responding to the fresh claims, the Ooni’s spokesperson, Moses Olafare, dismissed the allegations as baseless and childish, questioning why the Oluwo chose to make them on social media instead of reporting to the police.
“If somebody alleges a threat to his life or an attempt to kill him, should he report to security agencies or the media?” Olafare told Premium Times, an online news platform. “This is not the first time he is making such accusations. But has he ever gone to the police or the government? That alone shows the so-called allegations are hollow.”
On the infidelity claim, Olafare said the matter was private and irrelevant to the Ooni. “Whatever happened between him and his ex-wife is between them. The woman has moved on, and he has also remarried. So why bring Ooni into it? Honestly, the allegation is too childish to respond to.”
