The supremacy clash between the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi and the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade over the celebration of Oranyan Festival deepened on Saturday  as the Alaafin  declared that the legend was not in any of the four ruling/royal lineage of Ile-Ife.

Speaking at the grand finale of the 2013 edition of the festival, which was the second in history and which was held at the  Aganju Fore Court of the ancient Palace of the Alaafin in Oyo, Oba Adeyemi maintained that there was no way the people of Ile-Ife could lay claim to Oranyan as the Oyo people would do because, he was never a monarch in Ile-Ife the way he did in Oyo.

 Oba Adeyemi, who instituted the festival last year argued that there was no other place central to the celebration of Oranyan festival than his kingdom,Oyo, where he said Oranyan once ruled as the monarch, a fact that made him a direct offspring of the legend as against Ile-Ife. 

He described as falsification of facts the claim by some people in Ile-Ife that Oranyan ever ruled in the ancient town, noting that to further rubbish such claim was the disclosure by some that he was the second king of Ile-Ife while in another breath, he was said to be the fourth king.

Alaafin maintained that nothing could be farther from the truth than such claim, stressing that without mischief, none of the four ruling houses in Ile-Ife could claim to have been the descendant of Oranyan, “whereas, in our case in  the ancient Oyo town, Oranyan was our progenitor as one of our founding fathers”. It was gathered on Sunday that the itinerary nature of the ancient monarch of Oyo town made him an household name in several places across the Yoruba land as well as outside the shore of the country and assured that as many places as want to celebrate the legend are welcomed and allowed, “but that will not in anyway diminish from the fact that he was the founder of Oyo Kingdom.”

The two prominent traditional rulers have been engaging in  controversy  over the celebration of Oranyan festival.

Both the two towns had engaged in controversies over which of them had the right of holding the festival in view of the relationship of the legend with the two towns with Ile-Ife insisting that Oyo had no right celebrating the festival without seeking approval from its monarch, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Sijuwade Okunade, Olubuse 11.

The grand finale of the week long celebration attended by traditional rulers from across the Yoruba land and Republic of Benin as well as top government functionaries led by the state Deputy-Governor, Moses Alake Adeyemi witnessed diverse cultural displays and festival lecture.