Traditionalists consisting mainly Sango devotees, on Saturday afternoon took possession of the remains of the late Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, immediately after the Muslim Janazah prayers (funeral prayers before internment) were concluded on the deceased monarch’s body.
First News learnt that this development was to give room for the traditional rites to continue after the Islamic prayers were performed on the body.
Earlier, the Chief Imam of Oyo, Mas’ud Adebayo, had led Muslims to perform the Janazah prayer on the late Alaafin’s body inside the palace.
Sango devotees, however, later took it over and were later seen ferrying the late monarch’s remains from Ode Aro part of the palace into the Oba Adeyemi III Hall, where they had earlier covered his body with a mat before they later formed a circle round it.
The Sango devotees later ordered sympathisers and journalists to move out of the hall.
The traditionalists, while carrying the remains of the late monarch, chanted dirges and eulogies of Sango, who, according to Yoruba beliefs, is represented by a reigning Alaafin.
Oba Adeyemi passed on late Friday night at the Afe Babalola University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State capital, where he had been on admission for the treatment of an undisclosed ailment.
In the early hours of Saturday, the late monarch’s remains were brought to the Oyo palace, where traditional burial rites commenced immediately. His remains were later handed over to some Muslim clerics for the Janazah funerals prayers.