A prince of Ile-Ife, Prince Adedamola Aderemi, has joined the list of top contenders in the race for Ooni’s throne.
This followed the demise of the late Oba Okunade Sijuwade, Olubuse II.
Princes from the town’s four ruling families – Osinkola, Ogboru, Giesi and Lafogido – have started showing strong interest for the vacant seat.
Aderemi was born into the Osinkola ruling house over 50 years ago. He is the son of Aderoju, who is also the legal luminary son of the late Oba Adesoji Aderemi. Oba Aderemi was succeeded by Sijuwade.
The prince, who holds LLB and Masters of Laws from the Obafemi Awolowo University, graduated as the best masters’ student.
He obtained professional qualifications from law institutions within and outside the country, namely, Nigeria Law School and Inns of Court School of Law.
For over thirty years, the prince has been practising law successfully, both in the United Kingdom and Nigeria. He is cerebral, culturally exposed and with wide social network.
He started the profession as a Legislative Aide and Legal Draftsman in Kwara State House of Assembly during his National Youth Service Corp (NYSC), before proceeding to be the State Counsel in the Oyo State Ministry of Justice.
In 1983, he moved on to take a job as a law lecturer at the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University). Aderemi acted on several occasions as head of two departments – Department of Jurisprudence and Private Law and Department of International Law.
He also practiced in two law firms in Nigeria, namely, Law firm of Femi Atoyebi and S. O. Ajayi and Co & Pinnacle Chambers, before becoming a Barrister at Chambers of W Forster-Jones in England.
Between 1998 and 1999, he was a frontline gubernatorial aspirant of Alliance for Democracy (AD). He was also former President of Ife Metro Jaycees.
He is currently Director, (formerly Managing Director) Ovation International, publishers of Ovation Magazine. He has also been the Director of Energy Bank, Ghana since February 2010.
Prince Aderemi also serves as the External General Legal Counsel of Global Fleet/ Energy Group since 2005.
Over the years, he has made so many achievements professionally and academically with areas of specialisation in criminal law, immigration, human rights law, family law, commercial law and transactional law.
Aside from law, the prince has several published articles and contributions to books in the area of Banking, Local Government Law and Criminal Law to his credit.
In his quest for development, he was involved in several high profile transactional matters in Nigeria – the oil and gas and energy sectors as well as hospitality and insurance industry.
He has successfully litigated several major cases both in Nigeria and the UK, which included cases such as the NOGA commercial case and Serious Crimes in the UK.
About 13 years ago, he was exceptionally allowed to practise up to Supreme Court level in the United States (U.S.) in a case involving serious fraud and sovereignty.
Due to his level of professionalism, he appeared in English House of Lords in a case, which overturned more than 500 years of jurisprudence in relation to an aspect of domicile in international law.
He loves cricket, football, watching sports, reading and politics.