Posted by By Rotimi Ajayi, Ola Ajayi & Emma Ulayi on
IMPEACHED governor of Oyo State, Alhaji Rashidi Ladoja, failed, yesterday, to carry out his threat to resume duties as governor, although he said he would now do so after a strike called by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the state.
IBADAN - IMPEACHED governor of Oyo State, Alhaji Rashidi Ladoja, failed, yesterday, to carry out his threat to resume duties as governor, although he said he would now do so after a strike called by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the state. The strike was largely ineffective on its first day, yesterday, even as the national leadership of the NLC described Ladoja's impeachment as a subversion of law and democratic norms and vowed to deny Ladoja's successor and former deputy, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, recognition.
Chief Alao-Akala himself arrived his office yesterday brimming with confidence and declared: 'Two kings cannot stay in the same palace," in reference to Ladoja's threat to return to office yesterday.
Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, commenting on the political drama in the state called it 'an executive lawlessness on a large scale that has not been witnessed in the country in the last four decades."
Alhaji Ladoja, contrary to expectation, made no public appearance yesterday but issued a statement entitled: 'The battle of liberation will lead us to true democracy."
He denounced his estranged political godfather, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, and hailed 'the groundwell of support" from the 'good people of Oyo State."
The statement: 'In the past 24 hours, the good people of Oyo State have witnessed the groundswell of support for their desire to liberate themselves from the stranglehold of glorified miscreants and self-styled godfathers.
‘The support has come from the Body of Benchers, the distinguished seniors in the legal profession who have called on the Inspector-General Sunday Ehindero to live up to the obligations of his office and to the law profession by restoring my official security details in obedience to the ruling of High Court of Oyo State as delivered by Justice Bolaji-Yusuff.
'The support has come from the broad section of the workers in Oyo State formidably united under the umbrella of the Nigeria Labour Congress who have resolutely resolved not to live under the serfdom of godfathers or suffer the indignity of being ruled by an illegitimate, power hungry interloper who seeks to exploit this contrived crises to foist a civilian junta on the citizenry.
'The support has come from the Campaign of Democracy, the students unions of various institutions and the highly respected West African Bar Association. They have insisted that my mandate remained sacred as justified by the position of the law and asked President Olusegun Obasanjo to put an end to this nightmare by directing the Inspector-General of Police to obey the verdict of the Third Estate of the Realm.
'I am grateful for the massive endorsement of my mandate. I am inspired by the mass mobilisation of democratic forces for the defence of the rule of law that continues to take root across the length and breadth of Oyo State. I thank the Afenifere and the various delegations of farmers under the aegis of the Agbekoya, who have visited me to demonstrate their support for me till the end. I shall not disappoint anyone of you.
'I thank the press. Through editorials, letters to the editor, opinions expressed by legal luminaries and public spirited persons published in the media, the press has lived up to its traditional role in Nigerian history as the defender of the rule of law, justice and democracy.
'At last, the people of Ibadan, and the whole of Oyo State in general can see through the crisis. It is a disagreement over whether I should surrender the money of the people to a heartless, greedy and devious potentate. Today, the people have risen to liberate themselves from the you-chop-I-chop politics of Lamidi Adedibu, a man who sees government money as political.