Olowu of Orile-Owu, Oba Moses Olayioye Adedosu Adejobi, Afelele II, last Teusday could not make the council of traditional rulers’ meeting holding at Ode-Omu’s palace in Ayedade, Osun State. The 75-year-old monarch and his younger wife, Funmilayo, a princess of Gbongan, died in a fatal car accident at Gbongan junction. A commercial Hiace bus driver, while driving against the traffic in an attempt to avoid a bad portion of the Ife-Ibadan Express Way, crashed into his Peugeot 406 ash-colour car.
They had already covered about thirty kilometres from Orile-Owu, approaching Gbongan junction and leaving nearly twenty kilometers to Ode-Omu, their destination, when the accident occurred. An eye witness said that the driver tried to drive across the road from the junction joining Orile-Owu and Gbongan. After watching from the left side and with the assurance that he could move across the road before an approaching articulated vehicle, the monarch’s driver negotiated the junction. But he was wrong in his judgement as he was late in seeing the Hiace bus driver, who was already overtaking the slow moving trailer. The bus crashed into the Olowu’s car with much more impact on the rear side where the monarch and his wife were sitting. The 406 somersaulted and the couple were thrown out of the car, leaving the driver who had severe injuries and the Personal Assistant who miraculously escaped unhurt.
Some road side mechanics rushed to the victims’ rescue. One of them, simply called Ola, said: “We heard a loud bang after the accident and we rushed to help the victims. The 406 was somersaulting and throwing out passengers. We met a woman lying on her back, saying: ‘Where is Kabiyesi’. She asked about Kabiyesi thrice before she stopped talking and became lifeless. Then we tried to revive some of them, the driver and a guy (the P.A.). It was then we realized that the Kabiyesi the woman mentioned before she gave up the ghost must be somewhere in the bush. We began our search and about ten metres from the crashed car we found the Kabiyesi still breathing but slowly. He must have been struggling as his agbada (robe) was almost covering him and choking him. We quickly removed the robe covering him and got him into a car before he was rushed to a hospital at Ile-Ife.”
With the eye witness account, it was apparent that the monarch, who was a permanent member of the Osun State Council of Traditional Rulers chaired by Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, died between Gbongan junction (the accident spot) and Ile-Ife before getting medical help. Deji, a lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, who is the late monarch’s second son and fourth child, mournfully said if “baba (the monarch) had gotten a first aid treatment, possibly he could have survived the accident. Those who handled his transfer from the scene of the accident did their best but could not do more because of lack of first aid treatment knowledge.”
The king had eight children, six from his late first wife whom he met at the Teachers Grade Two College in Osogbo and another two from his younger wife, a teacher who also died in the crash. His deputy, Akogun of Orile-Owu, Chief Yaya Akintunde, glowingly described the late Olowu as a lover of culture and tradition whose major pre-occupation was the progress and development of his town. In his condolence message to the Adejobi family and Orile-Owu indigenes, the state governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, said the king’s wisdom and contributuon to tradition will be greatly missed.
