Awujale: Royal family disowns KWAM1, names candidates Monday

File Photo: Fuji artiste, Wasiu Ayinde, also known as KWAM1

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The Fusengbuwa ruling house of Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, on Thursday dismissed the claims by the popular Fuji musician, Wasiu Ayinde, that he is a member of the ruling house whose turn it is to produce the next Awujale of Ijebu land.

The family has, therefore, fixed Monday, December 15, 2025, for the nomination of all contestants in the race to pick the next Awujale. The names of the nominated candidates will be forwarded to the kingmakers, who will select the next Awujale within seven days from the list and submit it to the governor for approval.

The stool of Awujale and Paramount Ruler of Ijebu land rotates among the four ruling houses of Anikilaya, Gbelegbuwa, Fidipote, and Fusengbuwa. Following the death of Oba Sikiru Adetona from the Anikilaya royal family on July 13, 2025, after a 65-year reign, it is now the turn of Fusengbuwa to produce the next occupant of the throne.

The rejection of the musician as a member of the Fusengbuwa ruling house was contained in a letter dated December 11, 2025, which has since gone viral on social media. The letter, signed by the Chairman of the ruling house, Otunba Abdulateef Owoyemi, Deputy Chairman, Otunba Adedokun Ajidagba, and Vice Chairman, Prof Fassy Yusuf, among others, was issued in response to the family lineage data form completed by Ayinde to prove his legitimacy as a member of the Fusengbuwa ruling house.

Faulting Ayinde’s lineage data form, the family said, “Curiously, the form was certified by a purported family unit head, one Omooba Adetayo Abayomi Oduneye Eruobodo, on 8 December 2025, two days before your good self signed it,” describing the form as “presigned.”

The family further stated that the data form was not signed by the authorised representative (family head) of the musician’s purported family unit. It added: “Omooba Adetayo Abayomi Oduneye Eruobodo is not a registered member of the Jadiara Royal House and, therefore, has no locus standi to sign any linkage form on behalf of the family; and our extensive investigation has not revealed any proof of your membership of the Jadiara Royal House or indeed that of Fusengbuwa Ruling House. Consequently, the completed linkage lineage form is hereby declared null, void, and of no consequence. For the avoidance of doubt, your claim to the membership of Fusengbuwa Ruling House is rejected, and the completed form is of no consequence.”

Similarly, the spokesperson of the Fusengbuwa Nomination Committee, Omooba Abiodun Ogidan, said Ayinde is not a member of the family and, therefore, not qualified to contest for the vacant stool of Awujale.

Ogidan, addressing journalists during the meeting of the family heads of Fusengbuwa held on Thursday, said: “We just rose from the family meeting where all the Olori Ebis, the family heads of the Jadiara and Fusengbuwa family, met and deliberated on the way forward over the nomination to the throne of Awujale. It has been confirmed by our family that from all that he (Wasiu Ayinde) has written in the family lineage data form given to him, he is definitely not one of us in the Fusengbuwa ruling house. Let it be noted that Awujale’s nomination forms were not given to him. The Awujale form had closed by the time he began to claim that he was from the Fusengbuwa family. How can someone who has never been part of our family meetings or supported the family in any way suddenly wake up at the height of the glory of our family and begin to claim what never happened? Wasiu Ayinde is only trying to rewrite history, but this is 2025; he cannot pull the wool over our eyes. He is not part of us, and people with fake lineage will not be part of what we are doing here.”

The family meeting, held earlier before the press briefing, was chaired by Owoyemi. Also in attendance were Ajidagba, Prof Yusuf, Prof Lasun Gbadamosi of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, among others.

The family of the late Adebanjo Tijani Oduneye of Ijebu Ode also said that the musician was never a member of the family and could not have come from the Jadiara royal house. Speaking on behalf of the Oduneye family at Ile Nla, Ijebu Ode, Alhaja Adesumbo Oduneye said: “We are here to tell the world that the Oduneye family knew nothing about one Adetayo Oduneye, who signed the Fusengbuwa data lineage form of the musician, Ayinde.”

Alhaja Oduneye said that though the said Oduneye was her half-brother, having both been siblings of Pa Oduneye, he was never the family head and had never acted in such capacity. She added that the signatory held no right to sign anything on behalf of the Oduneye family members, who are descendants of Jadiara.

The 66-year-old woman said, “We were all shocked when the Fusengbuwa ruling house lineage data form signed by Adetayo Oduneye Eruobodo was sent to us. Yes, he is one of us, one of the children of our late father, Adebanjo Tijani Oduneye, but he is never the head of the Oduneye family. We do not even know anything about Setejoye that he is talking about. He is spreading falsehood because Alhaji Wasiu Ayinde is never a member of the Oduneye or Jadiara royal family. Wasiu Ayinde does not, by any means or chance, have any connection to the Jadiara ruling house. Irrespective of whatever Adetayo Oduneye is saying, he is on his own. The family members of Oduneye’s home and abroad sent me here to tell the world that Alhaji Wasiu Ayinde Marshall is not one of us and not from Jadiara. No one knows anything about what Adetayo Oduneye is doing. He is only intent on distorting facts, and the family has said such actions will not be allowed to stand.”

The data lineage form submitted by the musician on Wednesday was signed by Adetayo Oduneye Eruobodo, who claimed to be the head of the Setejoye Unit of the Jadiara ruling house. The Fusengbuwa data lineage form filled by Ayinde, circulated on social media, indicated that he is from the descendant family unit of Setejoye of the Jadiara ruling house through his father, Adisa Adesanya Anifowoshe. His form was countersigned by Omooba Adetayo Oduneye, the claimed family head of Setejoye Unit.

Ayinde is popularly known to have come from the Fidipote ruling house, through which he had picked the title of Olori Omooba of Ijebu land. KWAM 1, in a recent musical performance, insisted that he has roots in both Fidipote and Fusengbuwa ruling houses and is qualified to contest the Awujale stool.

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