The crisis rocking the Fusengbuwa Ruling House of Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, has escalated further with Chief (Prof.) Fassy Yusuf, Vice Chairman of the ruling house, dragging 11 members of an alleged breakaway unit to the High Court.
In a suit marked HCJ/153/2026 filed on August 24, 2026 at the Ogun State High Court, Ijebu Ode Judicial Division, Chief Yusuf is seeking damages and injunctive relief over what he described as a defamatory report published and circulated against him.
Pa Olusegun Olusoga, Mr. Ridwan Odunrye, Muyiwa Adeleye, Alhaji Taiwo Ajumo, Mr. Sikiru Adegunwa, Hon. Kehinde Lawal, Mr. Logunleko Oludare, Prince Abdul Onalaja, Mr. Ashiru Mufutau, Prince Osiyemi Johnson and Prince Adeleke Adeyemi were listed as the defendants in the suit.
In his statement of claim, the university lecturer and legal practitioner is demanding N10 billion in general damages for alleged defamation and reputational harm, as well as N5 million as deemed cost of legal action.
He is also seeking an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from publishing and disseminating further defamatory materials against him.
Additionally, he wants a court order compelling the defendants to publish a “full, unequivocal and unconditional retraction and unreserved apology” in designated national dailies, social media and other print media platforms where the offensive statements were published or disseminated.
The dispute centres on a document titled “Report of the Fusengbuwa Fact-Finding Committee” dated August 9, 2026.
Chief Yusuf is asking the court among other things for: “A declaration that the statements, allegations and imputations in the said report — particularly those alleging financial inducement, bribery and document manipulation — are false, defamatory and gravely injurious to his reputation.
“A declaration that the purported Fusengbuwa Fact-Finding Committee was unlawfully and improperly constituted, lacked lawful authority or mandate to investigate, adjudicate upon, or make binding findings concerning him, and that the report produced by the said Committee is invalid, null and void and of no effect whatsoever.”
In the statement of claim, the claimant averred that the report purported to contain findings and conclusions concern him and two other persons described therein as the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Fusengbuwa Ruling House Family Structure.
He claimed that the defamatory report was actionable in court.
The case had been filed and parties were expected to appear for hearing at a date to be assigned by the court.
The Fusengbuwa Ruling House is one of the ruling houses in Ijebu Ode and is next in line to produce the next Awujale and Paramount Ruler of Ijebuland.
The last Awujale, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, joined his ancestors on July 13, 2025 at the age of 91, after a historic 65-year reign on the throne.
Bids by the Fusengbuwa Ruling House to produce a successor to the Awujale since the demise of Oba Adetona have been mired in multiple setbacks, climaxing with the suspension of the selection process by the Dapo Abiodun-led Ogun State Government.
–
