AS ONISHERI COMES ALIVE AGAIN: A FLASH BACK TO THE LAST GUERRILA LAND WAR HE FOUGHT IN ISHERI OLOFIN TO VICTORY

-- If only Alhaji Shamsideen Adebimpe knew he had trodden upon a python to the anger of Isheri Olofin people!

By Razaq Adedeji Jimoh

When Apostle Cornellius Ojelabi , the State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, described Oba Wahab Ayinde Balogun, the late Onisheri of Isheri kingdom as one monarch "loved by his people", it was not sure if he had actually learnt about the many parts of the king that made it so. This past Sunday, December 18, 2022, Isheri Olofin Town was agog with the final burial of the king, who passed away about the first quarters of this year. The late monarch could be regarded as a personal friend and a Royal Father to the enterprise of Civics Weekly and its parent company, Yemab Publishers and Enterprises, because of the robust confidentiality, trust and openness the media house enjoyed in relationship with him -- for a short period of about two years though. To this extent, this magazine decided to bring forth what many may not know as the “troubled mind” of the First Class monarch in the last two years of his life time.

While the cover title for this story captures the subject of the issue appropriately as the last land war he fought and the disturbance of his deserving peace for his nonagenarian age also well captured as his momentary “troubled mind” for the period the war lasted, his victory in the war nevertheless makes this flashback publication a worthwhile and one piece of history to read about his many parts. Let’s take the course thence.

ONE of the prominent part of the ancient history of Isheri Olofin as ever recorded was the war of an ancient hunter, Olofin Ogunfunminire, with a forest gin called Aaroni Onigba ado – the gin with 200 gourds. Ogunfunminire, by a compelling circumstance that informed his emigration from Ile Ife, arrived to settle in the forest territory within the bounds of a political geography known as Alimosho Federal Constituency today. He came as a crowned king though. But he appeared to have trespassed into a territory of gins with the Aaroni as their king.

As expected, the consequence was a fierce war battle between Oba Ogunfunmnire and the Aaroni for bout that was to determine who would eventually own the land. Ogunfunminire thus conquered to create a human community that became Isheri Olofin today. This should literally make the epilogue of the historical narrative that connects the Olofin Ogunfunminire descendants to being children of python origin, as the consequence of the war created the dual life Ogunfunminire ever lived as both human and python.

The essence of this to the cover story could be discernible in one of The Nation’s veteran columnist, Tatalo Alamu’s philosophy, which he holds by rote -- that “history has a way of repeating itself”. This should explain the reality of a guerrilla land war one Alhaji Shamsideen Alabi Adebimpe ever pushed to a deadly dimension with the Onisheri. “Oba Wahab Balogun must be deposed!” Adebimpe insisted defiantly!

Adebimpe, a resident of Idimu, land speculator and political chieftain, launched his battle with the monarch in the middle of 2017 as a formal declaration of war with the kingdom of Isheri Olofin, a neighbourhood town of Idimu in Alimosho Fedral Constituency of Lagos State. But amidst this clamour, Oba Balogun yet celebrated his 35 years’ coronation anniversary in fanfare and glamour of royal vintage that made the town glowed with colorful parade of Aso ebi and traditional costumes.

What made the war fascinating, however, was the guerrilla style Alhaji Adebimpe adopted adopted in executing it. He remained an enigma, but his media arsenal for offensive assaults wreaked havoc of devastating impact on the Isheri Olofin kingdom when they came. The last of such was the "mischievous" intervention of the Lagos State Task Force on Land Grabbers, purportedly informed by another of the series of petitions that became the launcher of Alhaji Adebimpe's missiles of the periodic offensive assaults. It was a success story for Adebimpe because it wreaked the desired havoc!

By the final media reportage of what the Lagos State Task Force on Land Grabbers described as a “Public Hearing” on the petition by Adebimpe, the monarch had been simply and literally implicated as a criminal contemnor of a lawful court order that had to be reprimanded accordingly. He had been adjudged guilty of the allegations of criminal forceful encroachments on Idimu residents' land and properties as alleged in the petition. The Coordinator of the Task Force, Mr. Owolabi Arole, simply appeared to have read the riot act to the Oba and Isheri Olofin Family.

For the avoidance of doubt about this magazine's conclusion, in the The Nation newspaper, the story was published thus: “Arole, who noted that (his) decision was based on the need to maintain peace in the area, urged the Monarch (Oba Balogun) to desist from further causing damages to the property of the petitioner, Alhaji Shamsideen Lawal (Adebimpe) and others living there”.

And going further therefrom, the paper quoted the Task Force Coordinator to have sternly warned that: “the Government would not tolerate any breach of the peace or any intimidation and destruction of property. (And that) violators would be visited with the full wrath of the law. Order made by court of competent jurisdiction must be obeyed and violators, no matter how highly placed, would be arrested and prosecuted for breach of peace”. (The Nation 13/06/2019 p41 – Parenthesis ours)

But not a few observers at the event of the public hearing were quick to suspect a subterfuge use of the Task Force, a State's agency, as the latest weapon Alhaji Adebimpe would deploy in this fierce battle. They claimed that the media report credited to the Coordinator was unwarranted in the face of the monarch's response to the petition, “even amidst protest against the absence of the petitioner at the hearing”.

The law pundits among them further observed that what was published in the media was at best “a disguised press statement” by Arole because of “the uniformity of the texts of the publication, supposedly as news, in the different national dailies”. They concluded that this presupposed Arole's neglect of the counter allegations by the Kabiyesi that the man Adebimpe was indeed a pot calling the kettle black.

The discernible minds have found it difficult to disagree with this pundit's opinion. The reason, according to them, should be found in the holistic evaluation of the scene of that purported 'public hearing', where the Task Force appeared to have willingly or innocently played a “mischievous” ball Alhaji Adebimpe had set rolling since 2016. This position would appear well substantiated, going by the independent investigation of Civics Journal (now Civics Weekly) as yet reconciled with the independent report of its correspondent, Eze Nwagboto, who covered the public hearing at the Ministry of Justice Block, Alausa. Nwagboto observed that “The media report failed to capture the complaint protest of the representatives of the Isheri Olofin and Abisiwa families”.

Besides, this magazine's study of the whole event also seemed to find additional material needed to deepen its investigation works, particularly on the person of Alhaji Adebimpe for a more substantial balancing of story. In this regard, the opinions of some legal experts said “there are observable and manifest crafty artifice with which the petition to the Task Force was found to have been constructed”.

According to them, while Alhaji Adebimpe remained the manifest petitioner, the petition was constructed in a deliberate manner that would bring the three feuding parties to the land issue at the Court (Oba of Isheri Olofin versus Olorunfunmi and the Abisiwa Families (both of Idimu Land) before the Task Force, “despite subsistence of the case before the Appeal Court”.

For the avoidance of doubt, as they explained, in a copy of the purported March 14, 2019 petition released to the press, which was duly signed by one Alhaji Shamsideen Adebimpe Lawal as the petitioner, the petition yet portrayed Ishau Olorunfunmi Family as the complainant victim of the alleged Onisheri's acts of aggression.

The petition read as published in The Nation newspaper that: “The Olorunfunmi Family alleged that the monarch (Oba Balogun) disregarded the Court order by encouraging affected residents on the land to come forth for purported ratifications of their title despite the pending order”.

The newspaper then went further to quote from the petition thus: “The petition further alleged they (Isheri Olofin Family) have continuously encroached on the lands and properties of our clients and other Idimu residents, causing chaos and destruction in their wake by illegally evicting them from same and transferring title to innocent third parties who are unaware of the status of the pending appeal and the order of the court that status quo must be maintained”.

However, the Abisiwa Family denied any involvement in writing the petition. Reacting to the petition with expression of anger over the absence of the Petitioner, Alhaji Adebimpe, at the sitting; the Head of Abisiwa Family, Alhaji Amza Ajasa (also of blessed memory now), for whom Arole, the Task Force Coordinator, resolved that the proceeding would be in Yoruba, was reported to have warned that he would no longer make himself available anymore for what he described as the antics of the petitioner. He also threatened to consult his lawyer for appropriate action over the petition his family knew nothing about.

Also in his response through his lawyer, Oba Balogun denied the allegations. He also went further to explain how Adebimpe had continued to disobey the purported Appeal Court order as “the true position of the land issue, contrary to the tissues of lies stated in the petition”.

From the track of the feud's history as sustained independent investigation of the war by this magazine, the enigmatic commando style Alhaji Adebimpe seemed to apply in fighting the war made his absence at the hearing of his petition a subject of interest with which the person of the man could be unraveled for fact. It began with his Match 5, 2018 petition to then Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode. With the petition, Alhaji Adebimpe prayed to the Governor to depose Oba Wahab Balogun. He matched the petition with a press conference held in Abuja on Wednesday, April 25, 2018. The basis he gave for his demand was that the Isheri Olofin that Oba Balogun is ruling over never existed as an ancient kingdom, but a contemporary political creation of Lagos State. He threatened to sue Lagos State and the Governor if they failed to act on the petition.

While that application to the Governor subsisted, Alhaji Adebimpe yet filed another petition with which he again dragged the monarch before the Public Petition Committee of the Federal House of Representatives in the National Assembly, about the last quarter of same year. In this petition, he alleged that Oba Wahab Balogun forged the National Archives' documents with which he (the monarch) deceived the Court to procure the 2012 land dispute judgment in his favour. But in the same breath, he (Adebimpe) filed another petition against Justice L. B. Lawal-Akapo before the National Judicial Council (NJC), requesting that the Judge should be investigated for giving the judgment in favour of Isheri Olofin.

Looking at all this beyond the contents and context of the message, particularly the rationale behind the purported press conference that raised the Lagos affairs for Abuja scenes and determination, it caused the following pertinent posers to be raised by discernible minds:

1) Why take an exclusive Lagos “chieftaincy” issues to be raised in Abuja?

2) Why the petition to the National Assembly when the first choice of place for complaint of fraud and forgery against a community monarch should be the State Assembly, which has the concurrent powers to order dethronement of the Oba if found guilty?

3) On what authority, if not for deliberate mischief and a play to the gallery, could Alhaji Adebimpe have relied to bring a subsisting matter before the court to the attention of the public opinion?

How were these posers answered by the Petitioner and how did Oba Wahab Balogun fight the war? These are the issues addressed in part 2 of this flashback. Keep a date with us.