Posted by JIDE AJANI, Political Editor on
Chief Richard Abimbola Osuolale Akinjide, SAN, has declared that the impeached Governor of Oyo State, Senator Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja, committed political suicide by allowing the crisis between him and his estranged god-father, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, to lead to his impeachment.
SECOND Republic Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Richard Abimbola Osuolale Akinjide, SAN, has declared that the impeached Governor of Oyo State, Senator Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja, committed political suicide by allowing the crisis between him and his estranged god-father, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, to lead to his impeachment.
Akinjide, also said contrary to some views expressed about the impropriety of the impeachment process, members of Oyo State House of Assembly, who carried out the impeachment exercise, acted within the law.
Political suicide: Akinjide, in an interview with Sunday Vanguard, weekend, explained that, whereas there were many peace moves made with a view to ensuring that the crisis which had caused so much pain for the people of Oyo State since last year was resolved, Ladoja himself became a stumbling block.
The former minister, who gave one of such instances, disclosed that he made some secret moves with some political leaders in Oyo State which were unknown to members of the public.
He said both Ladoja and Adedibu were very close to him. 'The two actors in this crisis were very close to me. And what I tried to do but which was unknown to members of the public was to bring the two of them together, Akinjide said. He continued: 'The first thing I did was to set up a committee of four - myself, Alhaji Arisekola Alao, Dr. Lekan Are and Chief Lawal, an Ogbomoso elder.
'The meetings of the committee were always held in my house in Ibadan. We sat and identified people that we needed to meet in the interest of resolving this crisis. One of those we pencilled down was his (Ladoja) wife at home, the First Lady, Alhaji Adedibu himself and President Olusegun Obasanjo.
'We met with the wife and we found her to be very co-operative and supportive of our moves. She gave us useful information with a view to resolving the crisis."
But Akinjide lamented that at the meeting the group was supposed to hold with the impeached governor, 'the first thing the governor told us was that he would not want a non-Ibadan man to be part of the mediation and that was how we had to excuse Chief Lawal from the group although we were taken aback by that statement because this was an Oyo State matter and not an Ibadan affair. 'We acceded to his request and we eliminated Lawal," the former minister stated.
Akinjide said: "As if that was not enough, one of the times we were supposed to meet with him in his office, he said he was indisposed and, therefore, could not attend to us. We left, after fixing another date for the meeting. The three of us met with him later and I thought we were making progress.
'Mind you, I'm very close to both Ladoja and Adedibu. But, about three Sundays ago, when we were to meet with the (impeached) governor again, he came up with another shocker. I waited for the other members of the group just as I was waiting for the governor in my house for lunch as we had planned and time was fast lapsing.
'I telephoned Arisekola who then informed me that the governor said he wasn't going to be part of the meeting again because he didn't want me as a politician to be involved." The former Justice Minister said at that point he perceived that there must be something really wrong somewhere. According to him, 'my position as a Board of Trustees, member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, meant that I could be useful to him in some ways but when I heard that, I gave up on him. That was how he committed political suicide and some people had observed that the man is not a politician."
Going down memory lane, Akinjide said it was unfortunate that Ladoja went the way he did "because we were very close friends. In fact, I delivered a birthday lecture for him during those days of General Abacha," he said.
Due process was followed: On the process leading to the impeachment of Ladoja as governor, Akinjide said the 32-member House of Assembly which was reduced to 25 via the suspension of seven members meant that those suspended remained suspended and could not in any way enjoy their privileges as members of the Assembly, particularly but not limited to the issue of voting and being voted for.
He said the 18 members were more than two third of 25 and they were, therefore, capable of carrying out the impeachment. 'While all the impeachment process lasted, we were meeting with Adedibu who wanted the matter resolved because he wanted peace. Adedibu co-operated with us but Ladoja just chose to commit political suicide," the former minister added.