Yoruba nation activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, has dismissed claims that he disrespected the Alaafin of Oyo during his weekend visit to the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi.
Addressing the viral reports, Igboho said his comments at the Ooni’s palace were wrongly interpreted, stressing that the Alaafin remained a father figure and revered monarch in Yorubaland.
“I want to make it clear that I never abused the Alaafin. I can’t and I won’t. The Alaafin is not a small monarch in Yorubaland. I am from Oyo, and the Alaafin is my father,” he clarified in a video released on Saturday night.
Igboho explained that what many mistook as disrespect was a cultural expression. During the visit, palace drummers and praise-singers chanted his family’s lineage praises (oriki), and he merely responded with his own traditional chant, while also hailing the Ooni as “a father of peace.”
He added that such chants were part of Yoruba heritage and something he had done even at the Alaafin’s own palace in the past.
“If my words were misunderstood, I ask for forgiveness. I never meant to insult the Alaafin,” he said.
Reaffirming his respect for Yoruba traditional rulers, Igboho emphasized that he would never speak ill of any monarch, as unity among royal fathers remained central to preserving Yoruba culture.
