Contrary to media reports that embattled Oyo State Governor, Alhaji Rashidi Lad">
Posted by By CHRISTIAN ITA, AKEEB ALARAPE and COSMAS OMEGOH (Ibadan) on
Contrary to media reports that embattled Oyo State Governor, Alhaji Rashidi Ladoja, had secured the services of Chief Gani Fawehinmi, indications emerged weekend that the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) may have turned down the brief.
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Contrary to media reports that embattled Oyo State Governor, Alhaji Rashidi Ladoja, had secured the services of Chief Gani Fawehinmi, indications emerged weekend that the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) may have turned down the brief.
So far, Mallam Yusufu Ali (SAN) and Yakubu Dauda have anchored the defence of Ladoja who is facing impeachment over charges of gross misconduct being heard by a seven-man panel set up by the Oyo State Chief Judge, Justice Afolabi Adeniran.
Impeccable State House sources in Ibadan told Sunday Sun that, though the governor solicited Gani's intervention, the fiery lawyer rejected the offer "on principle."
The Lagos lawyer was said to have told the governor's emissaries in Lagos that even though he did not approve of the antics of those opposed to their principal, he, however, would not be party to defending any public officer accused of dipping hands in public till.
Among other things, the anti-Ladoja forces are alleging that the governor diverted N1.9billion oil windfall meant for councils in the state to his private account.
It was further gathered that Ladoja first sounded out the Lagos-based lawyer via telephone Thursday (January 5). This was followed with another telephone call by the governor the following morning (Friday, January 6).
Unable to convince Gani to take up the brief on phone, the beleaguered governor now reportedly sent a delegation led by his Chief of Staff, Barrister Sharafadeen Alli, to further mount pressure on the human rights advocate to accept the brief.
Apart from the pressure from the State House, a strong ally of Ladoja in the crisis, the Majority Leader of the State Assembly, Hon. Taoheed Ayorinde, was also said to have written a letter to the Gani Fawehinmi Chambers, seeking to enlist the Senior Advocate in the defence team.
The multiple pressures notwithstanding, Gani reportedly refused the brief on the ground that even though he was certain Ladoja's travails were not unconnected to the perceived Third Term agenda, he was however worried over allegations of corruption leveled against the governor.
Meanwhile, speaking to Sunday Sun earlier Friday via telephone, the governor made a candid confession that he lacks the power to meet the demands of his estranged godfather, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu.
Adedibu had given as one of the conditions for peace, the release of one of his henchmen, Alhaji Lateef Akinsola (a.k.a. Tokyo) from detention.
Tokyo, the former chairman of the Oyo State chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), was arrested in 2003 and has since been standing trial for murder.
Asked if he was ready to offer concessions to the Adedibu camp, Ladoja claimed that the demand by Adedibu that he should effect Tokyo's release was beyond him, even though he stated that he was open to dialogue on the Oyo crisis.
His words: "I am not the one holding Tokyo. He is standing trial and I have no control over his trial."
Despite this, he expressed the willingness to dialogue with the acclaimed strong man of Ibadan politics with a view to amicably resolving the impasse:
"I've always been open to dialogue and I will continue to be open to dialogue. But then you have to realise that meaningful dialogue can only hold under condition of peace. As you would observe, after the last fracas, there has not been any violence. Nobody has been arrested."
Ladoja, however, refused to comment on media reports credited to the National Vice Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Ayo Omilani that he (Ladoja) was responsible for the collapse of past peace efforts.
Insisting he would not make any comments, as he was yet to read the said report, the governor stated however, that "In any case, Omilani is entitled to his own opinion."
While urging his supporters to remain calm, the governor dismissed insinuations that the presidency was behind his travails, saying, " It is a question of local errors and not Abuja plot. I don't see Abuja in all of this. I don't think President Olusegun Obasanjo is behind it. As you can see, it is the Oyo State Chief Judge that set up the panel and not the Attorney General of the Federation."
He said if anything, the president is committed to the resolution of the crisis, revealing he had been speaking with the president regularly on the matter.
The beginning
On December 13, after a prolonged forced recess the pro-impeachment lawmakers had a rancorous sitting on the floor of the House before they later relocated to a highbrow hotel in Ibadan, where they sat and unanimously moved to serve the governor an impeachment notice.
Just as the pro-impeachment lawmakers were doing that, the remaining 13 lawmakers also sat and passed a vote of confidence on the governor, urging him to disregard the impeachment threat.
Since then, the political landscape of Ibadan, the acclaimed hotbed of Yoruba politics, has not been the same. The centre has not been able to hold.
Although, few people first took the impeachment plot serious since less than two-third of the lawmakers were championing the process, subsequent events proved otherwise. Indications also emerged on the likelihood of the involvement of external forces.
The perceived protection enjoyed by the pro-Adedibu lawmakers from security operatives clearly showed that Ladoja is fighting an enemy that is perhaps more formidable.
Assembly complex siege
Then came the withdrawal of police personnel attached to the embattled Speaker of the House, Hon. Adeleke, who the 18 lawmakers suspended at their earlier meeting, as well as the overnight occupation of the Assembly Complex by police.
On Thursday, December 22, the pro-Adedibu lawmakers, despite their adjournment sine die on December 13, resolved to hold their sitting at the chamber of the Assembly complex. Two days earlier, when the governor presented the 2006 Budget, they stayed away in spite of the earlier impression that peace had been brokered between the governor and his godfather by a popular Islamic leader in the state and President Olusegun Obasanjo at his Ota Farm.
At the Adedibu camp, there seems an air of assurance that the days of Ladoja at the Agodi Government House are numbered. Adedibu would not mince words in telling anybody that cares to listen that the governor is as good as gone.
In a recent chat with newsmen, Adedibu, though saying in one breadth that Ladoja's fate was in God's hand, was quick to point out that in democracy "Majority will always have their way and the minority their say," in apparent reference to the polarisation of the State Assembly.
However, the governor's camp is not leaving anything to chance either.
Primodial sentiments
Before the Christmas break with tension pervading the state and each of the camps mobilising its own forces, it was not in doubt that a large-scale violence was in the offing. The ruling of an Oyo State high court that it could not save Ladoja from being impeached compounded the situation.
The intervention of Ibadan elders and their visit to President Olusegun Obasanjo seemed to have doused the tension. The worry of the Ibadan indigenes can be understood: fear of losing the governorship position to 'an outsider'. Naturally, the baton of governance would fall on the Deputy-Governor, Otunba Christopher Alao-Akala, an indigene of Ogbomosho.
By Wednesday (December 28), it was rumoured that soldiers would be deployed in the state to effect the impeachment of the governor.
Reactions
Reacting to the development, National President of the Campaign for
Democracy, CD, Comrade Moshood Erubami, said Oyo indigenes would not allow democracy they all fought for to derail by the antics of both Adedibu and Ladoja supporters.
"Those of us who fought for this democracy would not allow anybody to derail it. We know what we went through to ensure this democracy is given birth to. So, after less than eight years, we will not open our eyes and allow anybody to derail it", Erubami stated.
But the former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Hon. Kehinde Ayoola, berated those behind the violent clash that characterised the sitting of lawmakers penultimate Thursday, saying it was a big disappointment that such could happen in a democracy.
"It is an ugly incident. In fact, I felt sad with what happened at the state secretariat, where hoodlums were allowed to desecrate the office of an Executive Governor. It belittles our leaders. It seems we cannot resolve our crisis without resorting to violence. We only pray it will not go beyond what has happened," Ayoola stated.
Publicity Secretary of the Oyo branch of Alliance for Democracy (AD), Prince Ayodeji Abass Alesinloye, also prayed the two parties in the rift not to destroy the state before 2007 when, according to him, AD would take over again.