Published 19th Nov, 2021

By Damilola Ayeni

On Monday, officers of the Osun State Police Command arrested Chief Rahmon Adedoyin, the Maye of Yorubaland, following the discovery of Timothy Adegoke’s dead body in a shallow grave near his hotel in Ile-Ife, Osun State.

Adegoke, an accountant, was in town to take an exam scheduled for November 6 and 7 at the Obafemi Awolowo University Distance Learning Center (OAU), Ile-Ife, where he was an MBA student.

He was lodged in Hilton Hotels and Resorts which had housed him during his previous stays in the town, but would be declared missing hours later. The controversy about his disappearance took a turn when a receptionist at Hilton told the police in Osogbo, capital of Osun State, that Adedoyin, the owner of the hotel and several businesses inside and outside Nigeria, could have played a role in what had befallen the 37-year-old student.

The subsequent arrest and detention of the businessman has revived concerns about the powerlessness of the law when dealing with prominent Nigerians. But who is Adedoyin?

BUSINESSMAN AND ‘EDUCATIONIST’

With about 11 businesses, including universities and polytechnics, in his name, Adedoyin belongs in the Nigerian elite class who have enough money and influence to make the law and its apparatuses do their bidding.

In 2019, Adedoyin was a guest of Yemi Osinbajo at the Aso Rock Villa where he had gone to invite the vice-president to his institution, Oduduwa University’s convocation ceremony. Licenced by the federal government in 2009, Oduduwa University, which covers 100 hectares, is one of Adedoyin’s several investments in Ile-Ife, his hometown in Osun State.

In 1984, he established The Polytechnic, which started as a tutorial college training candidates of ordinary and advanced level external examinations, in the town, then Our Saviours University and Unique Citizen (University) College in Delaware, United States, and Accra, Ghana, respectively. Since news of his arrest broke out, though, he has been credited with the leaking of Joint Admission Matriculation (JAMB) questions to students who paid him heavy cash to register at his ‘special centre’.

“He began getting rich through fraudulent activity. I know him for breaking into JAMB question papers right from the 90’s. That was when students would bombard Ile-Ife to write JAMB in order to get higher scores,” Oluyemi Adeyemi, a social media user, wrote.

Another social media user replied Adeyemi, saying: “You know him very well. He was handcuffed in 1999 about JAMB money looting. He has been a great criminal since day 1, but he will come on air and be saying he started his university business from JAMB coaching centre.”

MAYE OF YORUBALAND AND OTHER CHIEFTAINCY TITLES

For his growing influence and business strides, Adedoyin got the chieftaincy title of the Maye of Yorubalnd from Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, the Alaafin of Oyo. And in Ile-Ife, where he is said to have 70 percent of his investments, including the First Access Microfinance Bank and Hilton Hotels and Suites, the titles of ‘Balogun of Parakin-Eleyele’, and the ‘Maye of Ife’ were conferred on him by the late Ooni Okunade Sijuade.

Born into the ruling house of Akui Obalaayeto in Ile-Ife in 1957, Adedoyin went to Ansar-Islam Primary School between 1961 and 1969. He also attended Oduduwa College in the town between 1970 and 1974, then Muslim Grammar School, Odinjo, Ibadan, before proceeding to the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) to study mathematics education.

He bagged an MSc and PhD in mathematics education from the All Saints University of America in New York, USA.

STRIPPED OF HIS IFE TITLE BY OONI OGUNWUSI

Following the demise of Oba Okunade Sijuwade in 2015, he threw his hat in the ring for the Ooni throne. In an interview with Vanguard in August 2015, he said the late king had pointed to him as his successor in the presence of his chiefs. Although he lost the battle for the throne and the current king Adeyeye Ogunwusi eventually stripped him of his ‘Maye of Ife’ tittle over a poem he allegedly wrote to deride the Ooni stool, he has been honoured several times in the ancient town.

The late Okunade Sijuwade once named a nine-square-miles site of a new Ife town ‘Maye’ in his honour. The Ife Central Local Government also named a popular road ‘Dr. Ramon Adedoyin Way’ to honour him. During an Ife Day celebration, the Ife Development Board announced him as the best Ife son.

Adedoyin, an ambassador of the Rotary Club, was endowed with a professorial chair of the Littoral University, Porto-Novo, Benin Republic. He owns Ray Power Guards Ltd., Lagos; Our Saviours Tours and Visitors Company of America, New York, United States; and Oduduwa Polytechnic, Idimu, Lagos, alongside other businesses earlier stated.

On Thursday, the police in Osogbo, Osun State, stated their readiness to transfer him from their custody to the Force Headquarters in Abuja if necessary.

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