Olugabi Awolana was the Akogun of Owu in the year of the disastrous civil war waged against the old Iwo by the Ijebu with the aid of the Ife and Oyo. Awolana was appointed by the king of Owu to protect the peace and welfare of of the market patrons of people who made transactions in the market among which included traders and buyers from Ife, Egba, Ijesa, Ijebu and Oyo.
Awolana regularly patroled the market with his son. During the fracas caused by a dissatisfied Ijebu woman customer one day, Awolana’s son had tripped over another Ijebu woman’s good, drawing her ire. Awolana, in addressing the woman’s overreaction had given her a mortal injury, thereby causing a war that will draw the condemnation of his own Owu people, and a plague that will lead to the migration of is kinsmen to the newly founded Egba town, Abeokuta in 1834. Though taken as a villain in life by his own people, Awolana’s suicidal act in war that ensued was from a broken heart and he was thereafter, mourned.