The events of November 10, 2025 will go down as one of the most brazen exhibitions of impunity that Ondo State has been forced to endure in recent memory. In an effort to clear the air fouled by the grotesque spectacle staged by political actors posing as custodians of heritage, the Pa Akintola Ajisafe Family stepped forward to state the truth. They chose the Press Conference Centre in Akure as the arena where facts would rise above political manipulation. Afterward, one of their members headed with relatives to submit a letter for the governor’s attention, hoping that the machinery of state would extend a fair hearing. That hope died at the gates of power.
At the governor’s office, we were directed to the office of the Senior Assistant to the Governor, Mr. Bola Taiwo. The moment he discerned the purpose of our visit, the atmosphere shifted sharply. He shed all decorum and launched into an unrestrained tirade that betrayed the temperament of a man too entangled in a narrative to allow reason to intervene. He accused us of manufacturing the entire saga. He claimed someone had told him that His Royal Highness Oba Olaleye Awonusi Uloko Agbonden had done nothing wrong. According to his version, the assaulted Ojo Ajisafe had supposedly poured Maltina or another liquid on his own head and that there was no crime scene. He spoke with the arrogance of someone convinced he was dispensing truth, yet every word exposed a startling level of ignorance.
When confronted with medical evidence, he dismissed it, insisting that the courts in Akure found no visible scar on Ojo’s head. What he omitted is more telling than what he said. If indeed there were no injuries, why did the court not dismiss the case outright? Why was someone so desperate to have the case withdrawn from Akure and reassigned to Ondo? The facts remain unshakable. Wounds heal, skin regenerates, scars fade, but the truth remains engraved in the records of the government specialist hospital where Ojo was taken from the Trauma Centre in Ondo at 3 a.m. and transferred by ambulance to the Union Diagnostic Centre in Akure for further scans when his condition worsened. Lies collapse under the weight of evidence.
When we presented a photograph showing the stitches on Ojo’s head, Bola Taiwo’s outburst faltered for a moment, but not his attitude. He continued to justify the actions of Ondo East LCDA officials. According to him, a counter letter purportedly issued by the LCDA automatically took precedence over the 2022 directive in which His Excellency, then Deputy Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, had warned the Yangede of Epe not to proceed with any installation because the disputed territory is not within Epe.
It must be emphasized that the Yangede of Epe cannot install any chief outside his own Epe territory. Ondo East and Ondo West remain strictly under the sole authority of His Royal Highness Oba Dr. Victor Adesimbo Kiladejo, the Osemawe and Paramount Ruler of Ondo Kingdom. In other words, anyone referring to Olaleye Awonusi as holding chieftaincy authority in those areas is committing an offence. No caretaker LCDA letter, no political interference, and no personal assertion can override this traditional and legal fact.
For Bola Taiwo to suggest that a mere LCDA caretaker committee could overturn a governor’s directive and invalidate the centuries-old supremacy of the Osemawe in chieftaincy matters is bewildering. It is the administrative equivalent of claiming that a ward councillor’s memo supersedes the Nigerian Constitution.
As the conversation intensified, he abruptly terminated the meeting and refused to accept the letter addressed to the governor. He told us to return on Tuesday to meet the other party even though he had already taken sides and acted as judge and arbiter in a matter he was unwilling to understand. Since a physically biased officer has blocked our route to our able governor, we will return to court, since that is the final arbiter for the common man. We warn everyone not to touch Akintola Ajisafe’s land, as the doctrine of Lis Pendens remains in force during the pendency of court action. Any single plot given in any ‘aronda ronda’ or gestapo political settlement is a mere effort in futility.
What makes all of this even more troubling is the history behind the matter. Akinlaja had once embraced Ojo Ajisafe as his godson after discovering his family heritage. He bought him a motorcycle and linked him to his present legal team, paying half a million naira to fight off land grabbers threatening Ojo’s inheritance. But when Akinlaja tried to lure him into parting with family land for pittance in a gestapo-style operation, Ojo refused. He refused to be brainwashed, intimidated, or seduced into betraying his lineage. That defiance sealed his fate. What followed was an orchestrated campaign of terror against him. Ojo is not a land grabber. He is a landowner. No fewer than four separate court judgments affirm this fact. This is the tragedy of principled men who refuse to bow to the appetites of political overlords.
We must also address the Nolle Prosequi that was hurriedly issued. It arrived dead on arrival. The Magistrate’s Court had already struck out the case after the first legal advice from the Attorney General’s office and transferred it to the High Court where it is currently alive. The Attorney General, a man frequently praised for integrity, likely acted on misinformation. He may have trusted a narrative crafted by individuals whose loyalty is to ambition rather than truth. He was sold a polished falsehood and inadvertently sanctioned chaos born from the manipulations of a political relic whose unionist theatrics belong in the Kokori era. The result is that a notorious land grabber in Ondo Kingdom found the courage to escalate his assaults on both justice and communal peace.
We remain puzzled as to why the governor has not ordered a discreet probe into the case involving Akinlaja’s Chief Security Officer, Idowu Fadayomi, widely known as Madman, who was arrested by CSP Fabiyi of the Anti-Cultism Unit with two high-calibre pistols. Instead of facing justice, he was mysteriously released at a magistrate court while others arrested alongside him remain behind bars. We also know that Akinlaja recently stormed the office of the AIG Zone 17 attempting to bury another case involving the same Idowu Fadayomi. The AIG reportedly almost threw him out of the window. This speaks volumes about the audacity of the rot some individuals expect the system to normalize. Why has none of these matters been investigated? Why is there no audit of the files? Why is there no accountability? Why are political affiliations now treated as immunity certificates? We look forward to the day when libel suits will drag these matters into the disinfecting light of open court.
In the case involving Olaleye Awonusi, the defence counsel first asked the Magistrate to recuse himself. He did. The matter was reassigned. The same counsel demanded another recusal. When asked what exactly he wanted, he insisted the case be transferred to Court 1 in Ondo. The Magistrate described the manoeuvre as forum shopping but reluctantly granted the request.
What happened in the Ondo Chief Magistrate Court 1 defies belief. After hearing arguments, the Magistrate retired to her chambers to prepare her ruling. It was while writing this ruling that her phone rang. The call was from a certain Honorable linked to the Ondo East LCDA. He claimed he was calling on behalf of the Attorney General, delivering instructions that she must grant the accused bail under lenient terms. When she returned to court visibly disturbed, she read her ruling with a shaken voice. Immediately after concluding, she rose abruptly and confronted the Honorable in open court. She announced in clear terms heard by all present that he had called her while she was drafting her ruling to deliver what he described as the Attorney General’s order. She stated firmly that the Attorney General had never called her and had never interfered with her court or directed her to pervert justice. She sternly warned the Honorable, saying she would overlook the misconduct this time but would not tolerate such an act again.
A thick uneasy silence enveloped the courtroom. It was the silence that follows the exposure of an evil too glaring to deny. No one moved. No one whispered. In that moment, the truth stood tall and refused to bow.
As it is, we hope the governor’s supposed intervention in land matters has not died on arrival, because how does one choose a tiger to watch over his goat and expect a good end result? The entire land-grabbing intervention effort was compromised from the moment sharks like this discredited politician were smuggled onto the committee. You do not empower men who have weaponised land disputes for profit, used fear as currency, and sown discord across communities, and then expect justice to flourish. When a system recruits its own saboteurs, the outcome is predetermined: profiteering, manipulation, and the institutionalisation of chaos.
This is where Ondo stands today, on a precipice between truth and treachery, between a society governed by justice and one held hostage by political mercenaries. Until these matters are confronted with sincerity, courage and integrity, the land will know no peace.
