Adimu was in Oyo-biased account, one of Oduduwa’s trusty servants who, by circumstance, became the sovereign at Ile Ife, thereby occupying one of the most important offices in the entire old Yoruba nation. Oranyan left Adimu in charge of royal treasures when he set out for a retaliatory military action against his father’s adversaries in Egypt. Having found it unnecessary to continue with the march, Orayan had embarked on another mission, settling at, and building a new settlement at old Oyo, probably to keep the gate of the Yoruba nation against foreign incursion, even though the feared aggressors were conquerors of his own direct adversaries.
Adimu, now the sole custodian of the King’s treasures, became irrefutably great, nothwistanding his very humble past. His mother, when condemned to death, had been temporarily spared at the point of execution when she was discovered to be pregnant. The child was him and had been dedicated to the service of the gods. This history had earned him the nickname Omo Oluwo ni, shortened as Owoni, which was the response given at the beginning of his rise to power to people who wondered who he was. Omo Oluwo ni, meaning, the son of a sacrificial victim. The title, Owoni was subsequently adopted as the title of the Ooni, the King of Ile Ife.
