The Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi, on Sunday, led some chiefs and prominent indigenes of the town to Ile Ife to trace their origin to Lafogido Ruling House, which is one of the four ruling houses which has been producing the Ooni of Ife. The Iwo monarch, while speaking to journalists at the house located at the back of the Ooni’s Palace, added that it had been established now that indigenes of Iwo could come to Ife and contest to be the Ooni anytime the stool becomes vacant. According to Oba Akanbi, “All the ruling houses today are one. Osinkola, Ogboru, Giesi and Lafogido Ruling Houses are all from the same father, the same source. Iwo is also from the same source as this ruling house ( Lafogido). Iwo has a ruling house here in Ife, so it means that Ife princes can come to Iwo anytime and even aspire to be on the stool and also Iwo princes too can come to Ife and still want to do the same ( become the Ooni).
“The last time this kind of historical event happened was about 1,500 years ago and it was made possible then by Oranmiyan. He came back to his father’s house. He became the king and by the grace of God, we will see what the future holds for us in this regard. It is not that you will just make up a story because we did not make up a story to be here today. The mother of Iwo is Luwo Gbagida but we are all the same, I want you to know that Ife and Iwo are from the same father.The monarch said, Adekola Telu, the son of Luwo Gbagida ( female Ooni), had about 1,000 years ago migrated from Ooni’s Palace in Ile Ife with a crown he never wore to establish an empire in the land of the parrots where Iwo was presently located now. Luwo Gbagida was not just an Ooni that went down in history without achieving anything. She was the first one to construct roads. She also fought a war and she came back, she was a very dynamic woman, no woman even in the history of Nigeria has ever attained that feat. Luwo Gbagida was a very great woman.”
