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HISTORY AND OYO’S SHOW OF SHAME For the first time in my life, I was ashamed of my Pacesetter State last week. In a similar vein, I was ashamed of my party’s lack of ability to manage its electoral success and intra party frictions ...Read the full article.

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Akinyemi Akinlabi, thanks for the history lesson.

NVS audience, hear me out here. This thing happening in Oyo State is the same thing that happened in Anambara State. This blood-thirsty bent on getting one’s way at the expense of people’s life; this tendency to win at all costs; this callous madness; this incessant intimidation and destruction and murder will bring nothing but misery to the people of Southern Nigeria.

How do the clowns that engineer these things sleep in the night? What do these murderers teach their children? These people are the enemies of the Southern Nigerian children because while they stage their wild wild west gun battles with our own resources, our children are dying in hunger and are left undedicated. This is a shame! This is unbecoming of a people that call themselves leaders of communities.

OBJ is a Yoruba man. Oyo State is the heart of the Yoruba civilization. When this same destructive rampage happened in Anambara State, many people cried that OBJ was an Igbo hater. I think that this thing is beyond ethnicity because OBJ is yet to release the funds of the Lagos State. Therefore, I state and declare that this whole destructive and intimidative strategy has something to do with OBJ’s relentless desire to perpetuate himself in office.

The man has nothing to offer to any person in Southern Nigeria. Why not walk away from your failed attempts to lead us to the promise land? Why kill so many innocent Southerners? What have we done to deserve this? Were we responsible for your 3-years imprisonment under Abacha? Why should so many of our innocent people lose their lives so that you can impose your brainless will on all of us? Where are the elders of the Yoruba Land? Who will save us from this rampaging elephant?

Listen up: If OBJ continues in his current tricks and ploys to continue beyond 2007, then mark my words here, that many innocent Southerners will die. Recall that we have already lost more than 30,000 Southerners to Sharia, which was imposed on us by OBJ to appease the Northern Caliphate for his 1999 election.

Those who come here to defend OBJ and his 3rd term bid are in part responsible for this mayhem in Oyo State; the blood of those who have lost their lives are on your callous heads!

I am so mad!

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Is this the beginning of the end of the 4th Republic?

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What more can you expect, the Molete chieftain of Amala politics planted every "elected" officer of the state from Senators to the members of the Federal and State house of reps and the Governor himself. What Alafin Molete wants to do is simply change the Governor since the incumbent is starving him and he is hungry.
The Amala champion has never engaged in any productive venture in his life and as such you will never hear of Amala and sons Nigeria limited or Amala ventures since his only business is being in politics.
The Amala champion in the past has been known to send out people to return with an erring local government councilor in the boot of a peugeot car to his palace in Molete and he only feels it is time to remove ladoja since he would not fit snuggly in the trunk of a peugeot. Maybe when Yekini Adeojo finally gets there he will ensure the Amala chieftain is well fed.
I never realised how much money was involved in this state politics till I read that Alamco stole close to a billion dollars considering the fact that he can still point to some decent projects in his state even if contracts were over inflated.
The revelation thus proves beyond reasonable doubt that politics is a very lucrative business in Nigeria considering the fact that spending about $10m on campaigning could put you in a position of stealing roughly 5 times that amount every year.
The Amala chieftain knows how much is involved and feels insulted by the fact that Ladoja insists he has been compensated for the role he and his boys played to get him elected, it is not hidden that Oyo state is being ruled from Molete and Agodi is just the ceremonial seat of government, this has been the case since the days of Kolapo Isola calling Ishola a puppet is quite disrespectful to such objects.
I wish Ladoja all the best in ridding his state of the Amala guzzling monster but his task could be really difficult since the Okele champion seems to have some Federal support and has insunated this several times.

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IS ARMAGEDDON HERE?
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Tension Over Plans to Kidnap Chief Judge
Ademola Adeyemo in Ibadan, 12.24.2005

Tension has enveloped Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State, as the crisis between the state Governor, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, and his estranged godfather, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, has taken another turn for the worse.
It was learnt on Saturday that spirited plans were being made by the pro-Adedibu legislators to kidnap the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Afolabi Adeniran, in a move to get the judge to raise a panel to investigate the governor.
Adeniran could not be reached last night for comments and his whereabouts were unknown.
But the pro-impeachment legislators were said to be on the prowl looking for the Chief Judge in a bid to actualise their plan.
The 18 members of the state House of Assembly loyal to Adedibu claimed last week that they had suspended the Speaker of the House, Hon. Adeolu Adeleke, and had served impeachment notice on the governor.

Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Mr. Babatunde Eesuola, acting as the Clerk of the House had also earlier written a letter to the Chief Judge to convey an alleged resolution of the House to him to set up the impeachment panel.
But the 14 legislators loyal to the governor led by the Speaker and his deputy asked Ladoja to ignore the notice and passed a vote of confidence in him.
Adeleke also urged the Chief Judge to disregard Eesuolaís letter.
A bloody clash however ensued last Thursday when the 18 pro-impeachment legislators forcibly took over the assembly complex.
The clash left two people dead, scores injured and valuable properties including the Governorís office destroyed in an attempt by the legislators loyal to Adedibu to take over the parliament.
Last Friday, the 14 legislators in the governorís camp headed for court where they secured an injunction to stop any attempt at impeaching Ladoja.
The problem between Ladoja and Adedibu had been on for sometime and had defied the intervention of prominent leaders including President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Peoples Democratoc Party (PDP).

THISDAY 25/12/2005
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Oyo crisis latest: Speaker, wife under threats ...13 other pro-Ladoja lawmakers too •Adedibu adamant

Semiu Okanlawon, Kunle Owolabi, Kolawole Igandan, Toyin Obadina and Akin Oyedele

THE fratricidal war between Governor Ladoja of Oyo State, Senator Rasheed Ladoja and his estranged godfather, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, assumed a frightening dimension on Saturday, following alleged threats on the lives of the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon. Adeolu Adeleke and his wife.

Most of the other 13 lawmakers loyal to the governor have also gone underground because of similar threats.

A source claimed that an emissary was sent to the speaker’s wife recently to prevail on her husband to support the plot to impeach the governor.

She was said to have been told, pointedly, that she was too young to become a widow.

She reportedly broke down in tears and could not utter a word until her strange visitors left her residence in Ibadan.

Sunday Punch gathered that the Speaker, who had been a staunch supporter of the governor, had been under intense pressure and threats to shift camp.

In one of such instances, some of the pro-impeachment forces reportedly visited him during the week and told him that the powers that be had a vested interest in the impeachment of Ladoja. Therefore, they reportedly advised him to cooperate with other members of the house involved in the plot to remove the governor.

The Speaker was said to have told his visitors to go to the floor of the house to remove the governor, if they had the majority.

Loyalists of both the governor and Adedibu engaged in a gun duel at Agodi, the seat of government in Oyo on Thursday in the renewed battle to control political power in the state.

Though some of the pro-Ladoja legislators, who were contacted by Sunday Punch, confirmed the threats, only one of them, Hon. Josiah Olufemi, agreed to be quoted, saying that their lives were in serious danger.

“Everybody is being threatened here. Every one of us that has refused to go ahead with the mischief has come under threat. But we cannot be moved or shaken because we have a duty to perform.

“Everybody knows what is going on. The point is that some people want the governor impeached, but they do not have what it takes constitutionally, legally and even morally to do that.

“We even heard that a December deadline has been given as a target to impeach the governor and that was what was responsible for the crisis last Thursday. They wanted to serve a notice of impeachment to the governor through an undue process,” Olufemi said.

Contacted on the alleged threats, the Speaker said, “I have been warned not to grant any interview, but I will talk very soon. I intend to talk tomorrow (today), God willing; but for now, I don’t want anybody to miscontrue what I say innocently and genuinely. I know I have granted interviews in the past that had adverse effects”.

He said he could not make a categorical statement on the alleged threats to the life of his wife.

“I do not live with her. So, I will have to confirm from her if truly that happened, but I must hasten to say that I am not ruffled by the present political situation in the state. It is a sad turn of events, but what is happening has been destined to be”, he added.

But one of the 18 lawmakers loyal to Adedibu, Hon. Adeleke Jeleel, dismissed the claims of threat to lives, saying, “It is a lie, it is cheap propaganda. With the situation on ground, everybody will want to justify these things. Apart from the fact that his (Speaker’s) security was withdrawn when we suspended him, I want to believe it is because of the withdrawal that they are now going about with these allegations.

“Why would he cry wolf where there is none? Did he kill anybody? We are supposed to be complaining that we are being haunted because the Speaker and his boys have the government’s backing.”

On the impeachment plot, he said the pro-Ladoja lawmakers are only jumping the gun. “There is nothing in the notice that suggested impeachment at all. We only told him to respond to some allegations levelled against him. He was only to reply our letter to him, but did not.”

On their backers, he said, “Are you saying we are not responsible enough to take decisions that affect the state? Why, then, are we there? We have people who are 65 and 70 years in the House. We actually went to meet the party leaders, with Adedibu inclusive, when we realised that everybody in the state was suffering.”

The governor on Friday night met with President Olusegun Obasanjo at his Otta, Ogun State Farm over the crisis.

Adedibu has, however, ruled out any amicable settlement of the current rift, saying that the matter had got out of hand.

The politician told newsmen in Ibadan on Saturday that the governor spoke with him on telephone on Friday night and appealed to him to sheathe the sword and embrace peace in the overall interest of the people of the state.

He remarked that his disagreement with the governor stemmed from his alleged penchant for reneging on agreements.

“The matter has got out of hand. There is no going back. Even if we enter into another agreement, he will renege again,” he stated.

Adedibu confirmed that many concerned groups and individuals, including the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had prevailed on him to eschew violence.

He said the PDP leadership expressed unhappiness with the turn of events in the state, with an appeal to him to sink his differences with the governor.

The politician described the court action initiated by the Speaker, Adeolu Adeleke, against the 18 lawmakers as a waste of time, insisting that no court had jurisdiction over parliamentary matters.

A source at the Otta Farm of the President, who declined to give details of the meeting, told our correspondent on Saturday that the governor had an audience with the president till very late in the night on Friday.

The president and Ladoja had to commence the meeting at midnight on Saturday when it became apparent that Adedibu had resolved to stay away.

However, Obasanjo was said to have dominated proceedings during the five-hour meeting by asking the governor to go home and restore peace and order in state.

“The president did the talking throughout the meeting. Ladoja only listened. At the end of the meeting, the president directed him to go back to Oyo State and ensure peace and tranquility in his domain,” a source said.

It was not clear why Adedibu boycotted the meeting, the second of its kind by the president to resolve the face-off between the two stalwarts of the ruling PDP in the state.

Therefore, the meeting could not address the central issues on the conflict.

Adedibu, however, debunked reports that he shunned an invitation by Obasanjo to attend any reconciliation meeting in Otta, saying that there was no truth whatsoever in the report.

He said he would on Monday visit the president alongside National Assembly members representing the state to felicitate with him for the Christmas festival.

Adedibu denied the alleged involvement of The Presidency in the impeachment moves.

The governor, however, on Saturday continued with his consultations and dialogue with various leaders of thought and politicians in the state as part of measures to stave off the impeachment moves by the 18-member legislators loyal to Adedibu.

Sources said on Saturday that Ladoja also expected influential groups to intervene before the crisis in the state got out of hand.

The thinking of the governor, our correspondent gathered, was that such influential organisations, comprising notable Ibadan indigenes, command the respect of President Olusegun Obasanjo.

“You know, such organisations would not want the state to be turned into a theatre of war. And since the governor believes that the president still has a role to play in calming frayed nerves, he expects their intervention; and consultations are going on in that direction.”

As at 4 pm on Saturday, the governor was said to still be at one of the meetings to ensure that peace reigned in the state.

Also speaking with our correspondent on telephone from Abuja, the Commissioner of Police, Oyo State Command, Mr. Audu Abubakar, requested to be left out of the political crisis in the state as he was attending to what he called a “special assignment” in Abuja.

He said,” Can you leave me out of this matter? Phone the person on ground there for any intervention.”

Asked when he would return to his duty post, the commissioner said,”As soon as I finish whatever I am doing here.”

The Deputy Police Commissioner, Oyo State Command, Mr. Jonathan Johnson, dismissed speculations that the arrested persons in connection with the last Thursday fracas would be transferred to Abuja for proper interrogation and trial.

There were speculations that the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero, had directed that the suspects, whom Johnson said were over 20, should be moved to Abuja to particularly disclose the source of the guns they used during the violence that left seven policemen critically injured.

But the deputy police commissioner dismissed the insinuations as baseless, saying that the command had not received such directive.

It was calm at the secretariat complex of the state, even as our correspondents observed that policemen deployed in the wake of the fracas on Thursday, had since been withdrawn.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Community has urged the Federal Government to use the police for peace keeping rather than as an agent for the promotion of terror.

Reacting to the Thursday’s fracas as embarrassing and shameful to a pace setter state, the Catholic Community in a statement signed by the Catholic Archbishop of Ibadan, Felix Alaba Job, and the Bishop of Oyo, Julius Adelakun, deplored the wanton destruction of properties of citizens and government “with the connivance of security agents of the nations.”

The community appealed to the nation’s political leaders to remember that nobody was indispensable, adding that “leadership is a sacred trust and God the giver wishes our use of authority, strength and position to reflect his.”

Urging politicians to allow peace to reign, the Catholic Community said it was greatly disturbed with the political crisis currently rocking the state.

SUNDAY PUNCH, December 25, 2005
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How I was shot - Ladoja’s aide

ONE of the victims of last Thursday’s fracas at the Oyo State Government Secretariat, Ibadan, Mr. Soji Okunade, has called for an amicable settlement of the row between Governor Rashidi Ladoja and his enstranged political godfather, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu.


Speaking with Sunday Tribune on his hospital bed at the University College Hospital (UCH) yesterday, Okunade, one of the offi-cers at the cabinet and security department in the Governor’s Office, said the bullet that hit him, while discussing with one of his colleagues at the Registry, was unprecedented as he, along with others, had earlier heard gunshots in his office which forced them to scamper for safety.


“I was in Room 27, my office, when it started and we were lying down when they were shooting. Later, it stopped and I was in our registry and discussing with a colleague of mine when the bullet hit me. I just felt something hit me and when I looked at it, I saw blood,” Okunade said.


According to him, though given first aid treatment at the Government House Clinic, “I was later referred to the Ring Road State Hospital for x-ray, but on getting there, we were told that there was no light and so, I had to come back to Total Garden for it, “adding that conservatively, a sum of N30,000 had so far gone into obtaining medical treatment by him.


“The experience is a bad one, I never even pray for my enemy to experience it as I thought I would die, but thank God, I’m still alive,” he said, adding that the only way out of the political imbroglio that had engulfed the state in recent times is to “settle it amicably.”

SUNDAY TRIBUNE 25/12/2005
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ONLY GOD CAN SAVE NIGERIA NOW! OBASANJO AND HIS PDP CERTAINLY CAN'T.

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I read your article with oust most dismay, as the show of shame lingers on. This not only point to the directionless of our political system, it also clear indicates that we don’t yet have people we can refer to as leaders. I am an indigene of Ibadan, a city that pride it self of political sophistication as now turned turned it self into a object of public ridicule. It is very sadden that our political system is now run and managed but thugs and people with no respect for the rule of law. I must however state clearly that I am not in objection to any impeachment process but it should follow the laid down procedures and guide lines not by the use of force or intimidatiion.

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hello kako Oni komo ekun,

Thanks for your comments and remarks on my article on Oyo crisis. I also saw saw your remarks on our plan for the removal of immunity from the governors. You may please visit www.nigfes.org to join us in the process. Thanks. Yemak01.

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Lamidi Adedibu asks Yoruba to back third term

Says Ladoja must go
From Seun Adeoye, Osogbo

FROM Chief Lamidi Adedibu, the "stongman of Ibadan Politics" came an advice yesterday that all Yoruba should back President Olusegun Obasanjo's (alleged) third term bid.

Adedibu, who made the call while featuring in an interview programme on Osun State Broadcasting Corporation, Television Services, also declared that there was no going back on the impeachment of the Oyo State Governor, Chief Rashidi Ladoja.

According to Adedibu, if for about 40 years, the North could hold on to power "I think we should also be in office for 20 years." He, therefore, urged all Yoruba to support President Obasanjo's (rumoured) third term bid.

On Ladoja, Adedibu said nothing would stop the state lawmakers from impeaching the governor.

Already, he said over 1,000 names were before him on who would take over Ladoja's office as the state governor.

Suspected hoodlums believed to be supporters of Adedibu, along with 18 lawmakers who wanted to impeach Ladoja, invaded the state secretariat on Thursday, last week during which two persons were believed to have been killed after a bloody clash with the governor's supporters.

Although, he exonerated President Olusegun Obasanjo from the crisis, Adedibu noted that the president was aware of Ladoja's "sins" and why he must be removed as the governor.

Adedibu who was featuring in an interview programme on Osun State Broadcasting Corporation (OSBC), Television Services, cited the pending murder case against one Alhaji Akinola Lateef, (a.k.a. Tokyo) and a former boss of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), who for 29 months has being behind bars, on the orders of Ladoja.

He explained that Tokyo's case had been transferred to about five courts with nothing incriminating found against him, yet Ladoja, according to him, would not let him go.

"The man was one of the people who worked for Ladoja to become governor. All the investigation conducted by the Police showed that the man did not kill anyone. But on his order, Tokyo is still in detention for over 29 months.

"We are going to impeach him. There is no going back. We are certainly going to remove him. God put him there and God will remove him. I am in full control. He has nobody with him even by the time I was appointing his deputy, he did not know.

"He has nobody with him. All the lawmakers at the National Assembly are with me. Majority of the state lawmakers are with me. He is alone. He is fighting with everybody. He is fighting with the traditional rulers, the market women, the drivers, the workers, the market women. By the will of God, I put him there and I will remove him," Adedibu declared.

According to him, President Obasanjo had called two of them for amicable settlement but Adedibu claimed that Ladoja would always renege on terms of agreement.

He stated further, "even in the presence of the President, he (Ladoja) prostrated for me, more than six times. And the president ordered him to replace my vehicle that his "boys" destroyed, but he failed to do that."

On President Obasanjo's attitude to his use of thuggery to settle political scores, Adedibu insisted that nothing can stop him from using thugs, saying all were part of politics.

"There was a time former Governor Lam Adesina reported me to the president that I was causing problem in Oyo State. And the president needed to come to Ibadan where he invited me and about seven others for a meeting on this issue.

"And the president asked me that at 76 what legacy would I leave behind with hooliganism. I told the president that I already have a legacy and that is why he came to Ibadan. I told him that I will continue to cause problem and you will continue to see me as relevant," he stated.

Adedibu also accused Ladoja of keeping three of his concubines as commissioners in his cabinet.

GUARDIAN 27/DEC/2005
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Adedibu, force to reckon with, says Obasanjo

By Segun Adeleye

Reporter, Abeokuta


President Olusegun Obasanjo has described Lamidi Adedibu “as a force to reckon with both in Ibadan and the whole of Oyo State” politics.

Adedibu is an adversary of the state Governor, Rashidi Ladoja, whom his faction of lawmakers served an impeachment notice last week after a mayhem that led to the death of two persons.

The President bared his mind on Monday at Ibogun-Olaogun, his home town in Ogun State during the town’s Day for 2005.

He expressed appreciation for the presence of Adedibu at the occasion.

The man came with his supporters amid drumming and dancing.

The President told him: “We appreciate your coming. We appreciate not only your coming, we appreciate your coming in a very special style. Nothing can be more spectacular than the display of the drummers”.

Obasanjo apologised to Adedibu’s supporters for the insistence of the security agents not to allow them in with Adedibu on a horse back.

However, the President cautioned the actors in the Oyo State crisis, saying: “I will just plead with you and others who are in the mainstream of Oyo State politics to bear in mind these four important items: peace, security, solidarity and loyalty”.

He appealed to the factions to allow peace and security to prevail.

Obasanjo added that his administration would remain focused on accountability, no matter who is affected, disclosing that the first thing he did on arriving at the town on Monday was to examine the accounts of its development association for any trace of fraud.

He congratulated the Olowu of Owu, Olusanya Adegboyega Dosunmu, whose choice he described as the best thing to happen to the people.

Ogun State Governor, Gbenga Daniel, advised other communities to emulate the people of Ibogun-Olaogun by investing in the area to enable the government achieve overall development.

Obasanjo assured donors to the development of the town that their resources would be wisely spent, Daniel restated commitment to the welfare of every one statewide.

DAILY INDEPENDENT 27/DEC/2005
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WHEN LADOJA WENT TO OTTA HE A GOVERNOR WAS KEPT WAITING LIKE AN ERRAND BOY. WHEN ADEBIBU WENT THERE HE A KING OF THUGGERY WAS TREATED LIKE A KING. THOSE STOKING THE FIRE IN OYO WILL BE CONSUMED BY IT.

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Please can somebody explain what this man Adedibu is up to in Oyo State! I think he is just an ordinary citizen that has extra ordinary interest in causing trouble in Oyo state."
If Ladoja has refused to perform to peoples expectation, then , why is it that Adedibu has taken up the responsibility of removing the man from office . I think Adedibu is just one of those politicians that the country needs to get rid of.
If people like the so called godfather of oyo politics is still relevant in Nigerian politics, then, we still have a long way to go in our fight for true democracy.

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Ladoja must go this week -Adedibu
• No, he must stay, say Ibadan indigenes
From Hammed Bodunrin, Osogbo, and Akeeb Alarape, Ibadan
Tuesday, December 27, 2005


Alhaji Adedibu
Mores Stories on This Section
Ibadan politician, Chief Lamidi Adedibu says that the only solution to the lingering political crisis in Oyo State is the impeachment of Governor Rasheed Ladoja which he said must take place this week.

Adedibu insisted that nothing can stop the ongoing impeachment process as "majority of the lawmakers, all who matter in Oyo State and beyond, commoners and even God are in support of Ladoja's impeachment."

The governor's erstwhile godfather who also declared that President Olusegun Obasanjo was supporting him clarified that, "It is not that Obasanjo is supporting me blindly.He has reasons to support me. He has waded into the crisis several times but Ladoja never honoured any agreement.

There was a time when Obasanjo prostrated for me about six times, begging me. Ladoja is evil. He wants to rubbish me and others who worked for his victory. His impeachment is the only solution. We have many capable hands that can perform wonders in Oyo State."

Adedibu who featured on a personalty interview by the Osun State Broadcasting Corporation Monday said that the ongoing face-off was the last battle between him and Ladoja.

Though he did not give details of how the impeachment would be realised,the 14 days notice of impeachment purportedly served the Governor by 18 lawmakers loyal to Adedibu expires on December 28. According to him, some of the sins of the governor was his failure to honour all gentleman agreements entered with him before his election and during his ongoing administration as well as "victimization" of the ex- Oyo State Chairman of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Alhaji Lateef Akinsola (Tokyo).

Adedibu declared that "Tokyo was among those who helped him to become governor. Ladoja has no fear of God. He charged the man with murder and put the man in Agodi prison for over 29 months. He has no evidence against him but Tokyo has appeared in five different courts. If he wants peace, he should release the man now."

Speaking further, Adedibu said, "God used us to put him there and He will help us to take him out.I regret making Ladoja the governor, by the special grace of God, if the governor is impeached, he would be replaced with a good man that would be loved by all and sundry in the state.
"Impeachment is the only solution to the crisis. We are going to impeach him whether he likes it or not because we don't want him again. We are tired of him and by the grace of God if Ladoja is impeached today, I am in control.

"We don't want him any longer in Oyo State by the grace of God. I installed him there when people opposed him and by the grace of God he would be booted out by me because he has not performed at all since he became the governor of the state."

On the chances of the PDP in 2007 due to the crisis, Adedibu said that, "it is not the party crisis that is rocking the state, but it is the matter of Ladoja and Adedibu, it is Ladoja that people of Oyo State do not want again and not the PDP.

"I am the politics in Oyo State and I am the issue to discuss by all and sundry. Before the election in Oyo State, I was in control of all the political machinery but when Ladoja won the election with my support and that of my machinery, he withdrew the machinery to himself and refused to give them appointment or to compensate them.This is now the time for me to withdraw all the machinery from him and compensate them and this would be done after we might have impeached the governor from office."

"Senator Ladoja is a very lazy man that cannot do anything and God dislikes a lazy person, because of this Ladoja must be removed for God has approved it. I put him there and he is going to be removed for God himself is a God of judgment and Ladoja’s judgment has come and this will lead to his removal. We don't want him in Oyo State and God himself does not want him in the state", Adedibu insisted.

However, groups and notable individuals of Ibadanland have commenced subterranean moves to stall the impeachment of Oyo State governor, Senator Rasidi Ladoja.

This is coming at a time the state’s acting Chief Judge, Justice Afolabi Adeniran, says he has received another letter from loyalists of the governor asking him to discountenance the earlier letter calling on him to raise a seven-man panel to investigate allegations of gross misconduct leveled against the governor.
Eighteen of the 32-member State House of Assembly, backed by the embittered godfather of the governor, Chief Lamidi Adedibu, had commenced an impeachment process against the governor on December 13. To stall Ladoja’s removal from office, Daily Sun learnt that meetings were held at the weekend by groups and town clubs on the implication of the impeachment plot.

The groups were said to have considered the fate of Ibadanland if Deputy Governor Christopher Alao – Akala becomes governor in the event of Ladoja’s removal. They also considered chances of an Ibadanman emerging as governor of the state in the 2007, if Ladoja eventually goes.

"I think we have all resolved to make the fight not only Ladoja's fight but also that of entire Ibadanland. We came to the realisation that leaving Ladoja to face his ordeal alone in the hands of his so-called godfather and his party would spell doom for the entire city.

"So, we are fighting on. Whether Ladoja has committed an impeachable offence or not is not the issue now. The issue is the interest of Ibadan as a major stakeholder in the state", the source told Daily Sun.
Interestingly, out of the six local government areas in Ibadan, only one of them has been identifying with Adedibu since the rift between him and Ladoja became public knowledge.

Meanwhile, Justice Adeniran has acknowledged the receipt of a letter from the pro-Ladoja lawmakers in the state, led by the Speaker, Hon. Abraham Adeolu Adeleke, urging him to disregard the letter from pro-Adedibu lawmakers as they have no locus standi to impeach the governor.

In a telephone chat Monday, the CJ pledged to look at the two letters carefully before
Wednesday when he would make his decision known. The Chief Judge also debunked the alleged plan to abduct him and force him to constitute the panel that would look into the allegations leveled against the governor, saying he was not aware of such plan.

"I don't know anything about the plan to abduct me. Thank you for your concerns", the CJ said.
In a related development, the embattled Speaker, Hon. Abraham Adeolu Adeleke, has flayed the Oyo State Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr. Jonathan Johnson, for his disregard for due process before withdrawing his police orderlies on the eve of Thursday's fracas at the House of Assembly complex.

The Deputy Commissioner of Police had explained that he ordered the withdrawal of the police orderlies in view of a letter written to him by the pro-Adedibu lawmakers that the Speaker had been suspended.
But in a three-page press release Monday, the Speaker accused the police chief of acting out a prepared script by failing to cross-check the veracity of the claim of the pro- Adedibu lawmakers either from him or the Clerk of the House before withdrawing his security personnel.

"There is no doubt that the withdrawal of my aides and the security personnel attached to my official quarters was a way of exposing my life and that of my family to danger. This is a flagrant contravention of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as regard the exalted office of a Speaker of a State House of Assembly", the embattled Speaker stated.
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Source: Sun newspapers

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Where Ibadan Goes...
This Nation By Godwin Agbroko, 12.26.2005

From youth, Ibadan has always had a certain fascination for me. I think much of it started when all the comprehension passages in the Oxford reader we were using in primary 5 consisted of stories of the tour of Nigeria by a certain headmaster Bako, his wife and two wards, a boy and a girl of about our own age at the time. As the tour progressed through mystic towns as Lokoja, Jebba and Mokwa, the Bako wards, through their curiosity and probing questions, carried us along. I must confess that even though rooted to Warri spatially, that was the first time I literally went right round Nigeria in the mind's eye.
As with distant places not directly experienced, I must confess that my impressionable mind was suitably enchanted by the Bako tour. Of all the places visited in the country, Ibadan left an indelible impression. Right now, I can still envision the film watched by the Bakos in Mapo Hall in Ibadan about a cattle farm in Britain. Aside my enchantment with photographs in our reader of the cattle grazing in the serene farmland, I can still vividly recall my impression of the British farm as the idyllic paradise here on earth. From then on the name, Mapo Hall, acquired for me a mystical precision, along with the other places the Bakos visited in Ibadan such as the University College Hospital (UCH), University College, Ibadan, Moor Plantation, and so on.
Then politics came to add to the magic of Ibadan. Of course, every school pupil in the West knew of the political deity called Awo whose spirit radiated throughout the region from Ibadan. Those of us in the region's fringes in Warri also knew that the periodic colourful campaigns, thuggery, and the sharing of a cup of rice here and a cup of salt there were to enable the Addision Okoties and the Arthur-Prests to go to Ibadan for extended periods in the name of something called government. As we grew up, we were regaled by the political exploits of men like Adegoke Adelabu (alias penkelemes) before whom political deities like Awo supposely quaked. When the political crisis broke out in 1962 with the split of the Action Group, we were too young to know how momentous the event was, but we were sufficiently made aware of the supposed treachery of Akintola, Awo's deputy. But in our young minds, we thought that the fact that Akintola possessed remarkable oratorical skills and legendary powers of political dissembling only meant an interesting fight with Awo in the future.
It was only when the crisis snowballed into operation wetie with all the stories of massacres, arson and looting that we began to have misgivings. Though, Ibadan, the core of mayhem was far removed from our own portion of the region, we got a feel of the action through newspapers, radio and policemen relations who did tours of duty in the wild, wild West. One of the policemen, nicknamed Eddy Dollor who repeatedly went on tour of duty in Ibadan regaled us with how Yoruba politicians were casting spells on them-- of policemen whose uniforms stuck to their persons like their skins, of itching policemen who could do nothing else other than scratch their bodies all day long, and of others who stood rooted to one sport until they were captured, soaked (wetie) in petrol and set ablaze by the rampaging mob.
But even in my misgivings, my politician-uncle, an unreserved Action Grouper, made me have the distinct feeling that the fight in the West was essentially a struggle between light (Awo) and darkness (Akintola), and that the consequences for us was that Tafawa Balewa would use Akintola to return us to the ignorant bliss, up North, from which Awo had since liberated us. So, for holding up the banner of light after Awo's incarceration, Alhaji Dauda Adegbenro, who took the leadership of the Action Group became my instant hero. Wherever I saw an almanac with his picture conspicously displayed, I would stand and stare longingly at his immaculately white robes and turban, ardoned and held in place by the four-conered aga-sheriff.
Yet, in the midst of my fascination with Ibadan politics, personalities and institutions, I had deep apprehensions which the soldiers confirmed with the coup of January 15, 1996 in which Akintola, and a host of other prominent politicians, including Sir Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa, the prime minister were killed.
As it turned out, my youthful fascination and misapprehension at the people and events of Ibadan at the same time is somewhat emblematic of the town itself. Ibadan is a place of great contradictions or contrast as expressed by Prof. John Pepper-Clark in his poem of that title. A relatively new settlement arising from the Yoruba wars of the 19th century, Ibadan quickly flourished to acquire the status of the largest town in sub-Saharan Africa. But it is just an urban sprawl, much of it unplanned, invoking Pepper-Clarke to capture the contrast in his memorable chant: Ibadan, running splash of rust and gold/Flung and scattered among seven hills/Like broken china in the sun.
Yes, as long as I can remember, Ibadan has always had the highest concentration of primary and secondary schools for one city in Nigeria. That is understandable when you take into account the fact that the city was the capital of the region where Awo started the highly successful free primary education in the 1950s. When you add the fact that the first university in Nigeria was established in Ibadan a full 12 years or more before a second one came along, you would assume that the level of literacy among Ibadan indigenes would be one of, if not the highest in the country.
Here again, you would be mistaken. The contradictions of the city and its people would not permit such straight-forward expectations. I don't know whether the situation has changed significantly, but at the time I did my national service in Ibadan in 1978, I found the city, despite the proliferation of schools, the presence of a university and free primary education, to harbour the highest concentration of indigenous illiterates. I was flustered to see hordes of school-age children of Ibadan origin who had received no formal schooling whatsoever and were merrily engaged as meat seller's (eleran) or as motor-boys. Until I left Ibadan after my service, I could not get a clue to why this was so in a region where people, even in the hinterland, generally hungered for education and made great efforts to get one. In the end, I put the indigenes' apparent preference for blissful ignorance in the midst of comparatively overflowing opportunities for schooling to the inherent contradictions in Ibadan.
This quality may as well account for the city's politics. Despite its seemingly metropolitan composition, Ibadan is at heart a rustic city that had little use for urbane politics and politicians. Adelabu knew this well and therefore refused in his politics to subscribe to the gentleman code of the British public school tradition that was instilled in him at Government College, Ibadan. I suspect he was the one who established the tradition of what is now known as "the strongman of Ibadan politics." A demagogue and rabble-rouser of extradinary talents, Adelabu could easily have been categorised as a species of political thug but for his veneer of education and political offices.
The Adelabu (he died in 1958) tradition did not end with him, not even when the first republic collapsed in 1966. Busari Adelakun (alias Eruobodo) resurrected the tradition of â??strongman of Ibadan politicsâ?? in the second republic and took it to unexpected heights. Wholly lacking in Adelabuâ??s education and erudition, not to mention fines Eruobodo came across as a thoroughbred thug who got elevated to high political office of cabinet rank. Infact, it was said that Governor Bola Ige of Oyo State made the appointment against the wishes of Awo, the party chairman. When Ige and the strongman fell out, Awo reportedly took â??I-told-yoâ?? attitude before endorsing Eruobodoâ??s sack from the Oyo cabinet.
At the time, many strange stories were told of Eruohodoâ??s exploits in the political terrain. Some had it that at moments of violence at polling stations, he could slice a manâ??s face in two as if a razor-sharp matchete had done the job; others that his slap was capable of turning a man instantly into a tortorise in the full view of all those present. It was said that during his tiff with Ige, Eruobodo had warned the man who was angling to take over the commissionership to beware of the seat. Upon Euobodoâ??s sack, and his replacement, so the story went the new commissioner had hardly sat down in the office when he was thrown sky high by an invisible force and flung down on the floor where he collapsed in a heap. He never recovered.
When questioned by journalists, Eruobodo said he was sorry about the manâ??s death; he only sent a small missile to test him out, only to discover that that man was completely â??empty.â?? He said he couldnâ??t understand how a man could enter into the political terrain and take a seat from which he, Eruobodo, had been forced out, without that man fortifying himself adequately. As probably intended by the then reigning strongman of Ibadan politics, everyone was free to read what he preferred to believe into this tongue-in-cheek apology.
The stories are doubtless apocryphal. In telling them, however, people are making the important point that Ibadan politics (read the West) is like no other in Nigeria.
Iâ??m sure that we can only ignore this tradition in Nigerian politics to our own damnation.
In its essence, the Nigerian civil war of 1967-1970 began in earnest with the Jos convention of the Action Group of 1962 where Akintola, premier of the West, and Awo, leader of the party and federal opposition split into two implacable camps. Only in the West could such an earth-breaking split occur in the first republic. Not in Zikâ??s East, and certainly not in Ahmadu Belloâ??s North.
In time, the split spawned an Akintola alliance with the North to hold down democratic truth in the West. When the centre, in backing Akintola, made it impossible for the courts and the ballot box to determine who ruled the west, the people themselves naturally resorted to self-help of such ferocious magnitude that governance became virtually impossible in the entire region.
This otherwise straight-forward Nigerian story change however, when the mostly Ibo officers who staged the 1966 coup to rescue the nation, where by their selective killings accused in turn of an Ibo agenda to dominate the rest of Nigeria. A revenge coup in July that year by Northern officers to even scores spilled over into a pogrom against Ibos residing in the North. From then on, the nation took a plunge into civil war. In effect, the crisis that was wholly spawned in the west ironically ended up being an Eastern burden. Even now, echoes of it are still being heard in MASSOB and Uwawzuirike.
If the civil war was a single instance, June 12 was its corroboration that Western politics is different. Iâ??m certain that if someone from the East or the North, other than a Westerner, had won the June 12, 1993, presidential election that was annuled, the struggle to validate it would not have taken off at all, or if it did, it would have spluttered to a stop as soon as it began. Not so for the West. Despite the customary traitors within their midst, they had men sufficient and capable to hold down the presidency until it was ceded to them, so to speak in 1999. And of course, it would not have been the West if it didnâ??t add a concluding irony to the June 12 affair. And so, it happened that of their two presidential candidates, the one they massively rejected was voted by other Nigerians to become the president, from whom their geo-political zone has benefited immensely.
As we about to enter into 2006, I am sorely troubled by many things. Economic reforms without the sustaining political reforms is one; another is the dangerous talk of third term; a third is the democracy-undermining predilection of the presidency to disobey court orders, and to constrict the political space through the brazen seizure of the structures of the ruling party. All of these are raising the frightful spectre of imminent dictatorship that has to be resisted at all cost in 2006, with all the collateral damage to persons and institutions.
But none of these seems to worry me as much as what I would call the Anambraliation of Ibadan politics. In just this month alone, the Oyo House of Assembly has literally gone to war twice against itself. In the December 13 battle, two of the legislators were seriously injured. In that of December 22, supporters of Governor Rasheed Ladoja and his estranged godfather, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, joined the war and duelled for four to five hours exchanging gunshots. At the end two persons were reported to have died. Six or more persons, mostly security aides to the governor were said to have been injured. The Adedibu thugs, apparently shielded by the police were able, not only to breach the governorâ??s security, but to sack his office as well, vandalising everything in it. His absence from the office that day was the saving grace.
Like the Anambra experience, the Oyo governor is being tormented for not allowing his political godfather, the self-confessed exponent of amala politics, to privatise the resources of the state. And like Anambra again, the presidency is obviously providing the Ibadan strongman, the sinews of ward needed to oust the Oyo governor. But while that of Amambra has been confined to Awka, that of Ibadan may well break out and seize the nation and its democracy in 2006 in ways we are unable to contemplate for now. It may well turn Pepper-Clarkeâ??s poem inside-out to read somewhat like this: Ibadan, running splash of Nigeriaâ??s politics/Flung and scattered among six geo-political zones/Like broken china in the mud.
My prayer for 2006 is that may we have the capacity to mend broken china, if it comes to that.