Oluwo breaks silence on warning letter: I am King, I answer to nobody but God
Oluwo breaks silence on warning letter: I am King, I answer to nobody but God
The Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi, has declared that he is not a traditional ruler but a king who answers to nobody but God.
Oba Akanbi made the declaration while addressing his subjects at the annual celebration of ‘Odun Olodumare’ in Iwo, where he reacted to the warning letter written to him by the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.
“I am not a Traditional Ruler; I am a king, and I answer to nobody but God. The God that the Governor, President, Senators answer to,” the monarch said in a circulating video.
“I greet the state government, but they should have called and asked me to explain what customs and traditions mean before writing that letter to me. The government officials can come to my palace, or if the Governor invites me, I will go there with my full regalia and even dance with the governor,” he added.
“I am not a religious, cultural or traditional ruler. I am a king. I and Adeleke are not enemies,” Oba Akanbi, who spoke in Yoruba, stated.
It would be recalled that the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs had written to the monarch over his comments on other religions, in a letter with reference number CD.17/1/VOL.VIII/377, dated November 2026 and signed by Wale Alliyu on behalf of the Permanent Secretary.
In the letter, the government placed the Oluwo under watch over what it described as inflammatory remarks capable of triggering religious and inter-town conflicts, and directed him to stop attacking people of other faiths and fellow traditional rulers, saying his activities were raising communal tension, sowing seeds of communal and religious discord, and increasingly discrediting the traditional values of his people and the Yoruba race.
The government also reminded him that as a traditional ruler, his role is essentially the preservation of the cultural values and traditions of the people, and warned that pursuing any reform with the potential to create community violence and conflict would not be tolerated.
