Oba Enoch Akinyemi

Oba Akinyemi died on Friday 16 October 2026, aged 85. His death was announced the same day in a statement by the Obaala of Imesi-Ile, High Chief Tunde Aluko (also reported as Olatunde Aluko), chairman of the Owa-Ooye-in-Council, on behalf of the royal council and the community. The statement said he had joined his ancestors that day and described him as a father to all and a symbol of peace, unity and development. He would have turned 86 the following month.

No cause of death was made public, and the place of death was not reported. Chief Olusola Fabiyi, Baba Egbe Odo of Ijana Methodist Church in Imesi-Ile, told The Punch that the king had not been sick, had held meetings with chiefs and associates until late on the Thursday evening, and had been in Osogbo that day. His personal assistant, Lekan Animashaun, likewise said he showed no sign that his death was near.

Traditional rites began on the night of 16 October in line with the customs of Imesi-Ile. The Imesi-Ile Progressive Association suspended its major public outings in his honour. Burial arrangements were to be announced by the royal family and the Owa-Ooye-in-Council. The Punch, OsunDefender, Naija News and Daily Post Nigeria reported his death on 16 and 17 October.

Enoch Ademola Akinyemi told The Punch in a 2016 interview that he was born in Lagos in 1942. He attended Yaba Methodist School and went on to secondary school from Standard V, without taking Standard VI. He traced his ancestry to the royal line of Imesi-Ile and to Ooyelagbo in Ile-Ife. His great grandfather had been an Oba, but his grandfather and father were not, so he did not grow up in the palace, and he said he never planned to become a king.

At secondary school he dreamed of becoming an engineer, but the school did not offer science subjects. After leaving school he joined the Ministry of External Affairs in 1962, working from 8am to 2pm and attending emergency science classes in the evenings, teaching himself physics from Nelkon's textbook. He later travelled to the United Kingdom to study.

In the United Kingdom he studied electrical and electronics engineering at Middlesex University and later took a master's degree at Lancaster University. After graduating he chose between three job offers and worked as a development engineer, leaving the company as a senior development engineer. His father allowed him to take the job on condition that he came home to Nigeria at least once a year.

He then joined London Underground as technical support manager and was later promoted to technical manager. He went on to work in several other organisations and was a senior project manager when his family called him home. He said that while he was in Britain his father had asked him not to turn the town down if its people ever wanted him as Oba.

When the throne of Imesi-Ile fell vacant and it was his ruling house's turn, his family asked him to accept it. He finished the project he was supervising first, and then, by his own account, told them he would only accept if he was to be Oba for the whole town and not for the family alone. He ascended the throne in 2005, when he was over 60, taking the title Owa-Ooye of Imesi-Ile, Oyoyo II. It is a first-class stool in Osun State.

As Owa-Ooye he was a custodian of the town's history in the Kiriji War, the long conflict between Ibadan and the Ekitiparapo alliance that was ended by the peace treaty of 23 September 1886. He was a royal host of the annual Kiriji and Yoruba Unity Day celebrations, and in 2017 he told the gathering that the celebration was not for Imesi-Ile alone but for all Yorubas, and that the town backed calls for Nigeria to be restructured along regional lines. In 2020 he was one of the chief hosts of the 134th anniversary, and in 2026 he was among the monarchs confirmed for the 140th anniversary of the peace treaty. He believed the Kiriji sites could become a tourist attraction for the state and the whole Yoruba people. At the 2022 Imesi-Ile Day celebrations he asked the government to give the town special security attention as a gateway to Ekiti State, praised the hunters and volunteers who kept it safe, and urged indigenes to develop the town themselves.

He married his wife, whom he had known as a friend since secondary school, on the morning of the day he left Nigeria to study abroad, and he travelled the same evening. She stayed behind at first and worked as a nurse at a general hospital. In 2016 he said he had one wife, did not think it wise to marry more than one, and had four children, three sons and a daughter. He was a Christian and said he would never accept any harmful ritual as king. He described himself as having lived abroad for many years and come home to pay back a little of what his parents' education had given him.

The Imesi-Ile Progressive Association said that during his reign the town enjoyed peace, stability and unprecedented development, and it singled out his development projects, his cordial relationship with successive governments and his commitment to preserving the town's cultural heritage. He is remembered in particular for promoting Imesi-Ile's place in the story of the Kiriji War and for supporting the growing recognition of the Kiriji celebration, which was one of his last major public outings. He brought to the throne a long career as an engineer in Britain, and he spoke often of serving the whole community rather than any one family.