Scandal on the throne

Among the Yoruba, there is a cultural awe for monarchs because they are regarded as representatives of the deities. They are esteemed above board in mortal fallibility, hence their recognition as one who is not to be questioned – ‘K’a bi o osi,’ which over the ages has been shortened into ‘Kabiyesi’. Only God is truly infallible and beyond questioning, though. It’s just that monarchs are deemed agents of the gods. But they are mortals after all, and anyone among them who strays from the hallowed ground of royal integrity gets stuck in muck like Oba Joseph Oloyede.

The Alapetu of Ipetumodu, a community in Ife North council area of Osun State, recently got sentenced to jail in the United States for 56 months over fraud related to Covid-19 emergency loan for struggling businesses in that country. Oloyede holds dual citizenship of Nigeria and the U.S. And even though he was installed the Alapetu in October 2019, he is convicted and jailed for $4.2million fraud committed between 2020 and 2022. You heard that right: he dragged the revered crown of his people in the mud by engaging in fraud in America while holding the royal stool back home. The verdict handed down penultimate week by District Judge Christopher Boyko also ordered Oloyede to serve three years of supervised release after imprisonment and pay $4,408,543.38 in restitution. He as well forfeited his home in Medina, Ohio, said to have been acquired with proceeds of the crime, and an additional $96,006.89 in fraud proceeds that investigators earlier seized.

The 62-year-old Ipetumodu monarch worked as an accountant and information system expert in the U.S. and shuttled between both countries. He was arrested during a visit to the U.S. in May 2024 alongside a Nigerian pastor and accomplice in crime, Edward Oluwasanmi. Both men were charged with 13 counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud, money laundering, and engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property. They were arraigned before Justice Boyko of the U.S. District Court of Ohio.

According to court documents, Oloyede and Oluwasanmi submitted falsified applications for loans under the U.S. Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act between April 2020 and February 2022. The Act was enacted to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans heavily impacted by the negative economy of Covid-19 by issuing loans to small businesses and non-profit entities that experienced revenue loss due to the pandemic. The Act also authorised the U.S. Small Business Administration to issue advances or grants up to $10,000 to small firms. Oloyede and Oluwasanmi were docked for using fake tax and wage documents to secure funds meant to aid struggling businesses during the pandemic.

Oloyede, who was based in Medina, Ohio before taking the Ipetumodu throne, was accused of using his companies – among them Available Tax Services Incorporated, Available Financial Corporation, and Available Transportation Company – to defraud the American government through the Covid-19 relief fund. His accomplice, Oluwasanmi, was accused of using his own companies – Dayspring Transportation Limited, Dayspring Holding Incorporated, and Dayspring Property Incorporated – to obtain millions of dollars later diverted for personal expenses, in breach of U.S. federal laws. The duo, among other things, fraudulently obtained the sum of $3.76million from the U.S. Paycheck Protection Programme and Economic Injury Disaster Loans scheme.

Oloyede’s legal ordeal seeped into the open following his long absence from his native community upon a trip abroad. Anxiety mounted in Ipetumodu after the monarch was absent from several important festivals that required his presence, but word soon filtered out that he was being held by U.S. authorities. After nearly a year of facing trial, both Oloyede and Oluwasanmi pleaded guilty in April to wire tax fraud charges. Oluwasanmi filed his guilty plea on 10th April, while Oloyede entered his plea on 21st April. Oluwasanmi was, early in July, sentenced by the district court to 27 months in prison, and Oloyede got his own sentence on 26th August. 

“Oloyede and his accomplice would have been celebrated as Nigerians who thrived in other lands when home-borns of the land struggled to survive; but no, they are geniuses of the evil kind”

U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio said Judge Boyko found that Oloyede led a conspiracy to exploit the Covid-19 emergency loan programmes. A statement from the office said: “From about April 2020 to February 2022, Oloyede and his co-conspirator, Edward Oluwasanmi, conspired to submit fraudulent applications for loans that were made available through the U.S. Small Business Association (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.” It added: “They obtained approximately $1.2million in SBA funds for Oluwasanmi’s entities and $1.7million for Oloyede’s entities.”

Oloyede also submitted fraudulent applications in the names of clients and their businesses, for which he collected 15 to 20 percent as kickback for obtaining the loans for them “without reporting this income to the IRS on his own tax returns.” Prosecutors said the funds were then used for personal gain. “Investigators learned that the defendant used funds obtained from these loans to acquire land, build a home and purchase a luxury vehicle,” the district attorney’s statement said, adding that in all, Oloyede “caused the SBA to approve 38 fraudulent applications, amounting to $4,213,378 in disbursed loans and advances.”

Oloyede and his accomplice would have been celebrated as Nigerians who thrived in other lands when home-borns of the land struggled to survive; but no, they are geniuses of the evil kind. The monarch knows now, if he didn’t before, that the law is no respecter of persons. You could imagine his consternation when U.S. law agents pulled him in without scant regard for his royal status back home. That hardline posture is not being taken back home, though, by the Osun State Government that insisted on obtaining a certified copy of the U.S. district court judgment before making a decision on the Alapetu stool. “While it may be true that the monarch has been convicted and jailed, there is no official record with us. We will direct that the Certified True Copy of the judgment be obtained. After studying it, the government will then decide on next steps,” Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters Commissioner Dosu Babatunde said in a statement, adding: “We cannot rely on Facebook posts and stories to justify such a serious matter. ”

People of Ipetumodu aren’t themselves as laid back and have plied demands for a new Alapetu to be installed. Oloyede ascended the throne in succession to Oba James Adedokun Adego (Akunradoye II) who passed on in 2017. He came through a hotly contested process involving more than ten princes, and with religious authorities including clerics and Ifa priests reportedly consulted before he was handed a letter of appointment by former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola. But an heir to the Apetu throne, Prince Laboye Ayoola, accused stakeholders of prioritising wealth over tradition and neglecting Ifa consultation during the selection process. In an interview with The Nation, he cited disregard for custom by kingmakers, government and ruling houses for the emergence of the embattled monarch. Ayoola, from Aribile ruling house, described the monarch’s fate as an embarrassment to the community. “Oba Oloyede was considered because of his wealth. He only came home to contest the stool and kept shuttling between Nigeria and the U.S. until his arrest,” he said.

If Ifa was consulted, was the oracle in error about Oloyede’s suitability for the throne? Other considerations must have come to play. So, the monarch’s tangle with the U.S. law raises questions afresh about the process of selection to traditional stools whereby the depth of the pocket, more than character and credibility of ancestry, tips the scale in a contender’s favour. It was not so in traditional history. 

One thing Ifa need not be bothered about is whether Oloyede will resume his crown at a future date. He will not. He was arrested in May 2024 and has been away from the Ipetumodu throne for all of that time, and he obviously won’t be back for a long while. When the Osun government says it is waiting to obtain a certified copy of the U.S. court judgment before taking next steps on the Alapetu stool, you wonder if the stool had an occupant since Oloyede’s arrest.