Osun Government deposes Apetumodu due to U.S. prison sentence

The Osun State Government has officially deposed Oba Joseph Oloyede and declared the Apetumodu stool vacant following his conviction and imprisonment in the United States over a multimillion-dollar COVID-19 relief fraud.

In a statement issued on Monday by Olawale Rasheed, the state government said Governor Ademola Adeleke approved the monarch’s deposition after receiving the Certified True Copy of the judgment delivered by a U.S. court in Ohio.

According to the statement, Oloyede’s guilty plea to tax fraud and money laundering charges, as well as his public trial and conviction, brought the traditional institution and the stool of the Apetumodu of Ipetumodu into disrepute.

“With this deposition, the stool of Apetumodu of Ipetumodu has been declared vacant, and the necessary processes will be initiated to appoint a new Apetumodu at the appropriate time,” the statement said.

The decision comes nearly a year after reports revealed that the monarch, who disappeared from public view in March 2024, had been taken into custody by the Federal Bureau of Investigation over allegations that he fraudulently obtained $4.2 million in COVID-19 relief funds from the U.S. government.

A federal court in the United States later sentenced Oloyede to five years in prison and ordered him to repay more than $4.4 million to victims of the scheme.

At a sentencing hearing on August 26, 2025, before Judge Christopher A. Boyko of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Oloyede was handed multiple prison terms to run concurrently, including 56 months on key counts related to the fraud.

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In addition to the custodial sentence, the former monarch will serve three years of supervised release, pay a mandatory $400 special assessment and forfeit assets linked to the criminal proceeds.

The Osun government said the deposition was necessary to protect the integrity and dignity of the traditional institution in the state.

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