Admin l March, 03, 2017
IKOYI, Lagos, Nigeria – More revelations have continued to unfold at the Federal High Court in Ikoyi Lagos, where a former Governor of Oyo State is facing trial for N4.7 billion fraud.
The latest, coming from a former Senior Special Executive Assistant to the former governor Mr. Adewale Atanda, who told the court that the former governor purchased 22 cars for lawmakers in the state to avoid being impeached in 2005.
He said the former governor however gave out only 14 to 14 lawmakers whose loyalty he was eventually able to secure.
Atanda explained that the Oyo State House of Assembly had 32 lawmakers and for Ladoja to have stopped his impeachment he needed the votes of 22, which was why he bought 22.
Ladoja is standing trial alongside, Waheed Akanbi, who served Oyo State under his administration as the Commissioner for Finance.
Led in evidence by the EFCC prosecutor, Mr. Oluwafemi Olabisi, Atanda, who claimed to have met Ladoja back in the year 2000 when he was vying for a senatorial seat on the platform of the same political party that Ladoja.
“Well, I don’t know exactly how it started but it appeared as if there was a rift between members of the Oyo State House of Assembly on one hand, some political actors in the state, like Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu (late) and Senator Ladoja, and some other external influences from Abuja at the material time. Very many attempts were made to remove Senator Ladoja from office; various petitions were written and at the end of the day an impeachment process was set in motion.
“Oyo State has about 32 members of the House of Assembly and to successfully impeach the governor, it would require two-thirds majority support of the members of the House of Assembly. That will be about 22 members.
“In order to secure the loyalty of these 22 members of the House certain promises were made by different political actors. One of such was that loyal members would be given vehicles.
“In the course of all these, I had discussion with Senator Ladoja and explained to him that it was important that that this promises be kept. At the material time, it was rather impossible to buy these vehicles because they were not included in the budget for the year, so, we started looking for alternative ways to accommodate the request,” Atanda said.
Atanda said he eventually obtained a loan of N80m from Wema Bank with his personal assets to assist Ladoja, who was his political associate.
“The vehicles were bought and collected from the various dealers by the drivers of the Oyo State Government and delivered to the Government House in Ibadan. In spite of this, I think, by December 2005, the governor was impeached from office.”
He said after he was impeached, Ladoja and his allies, including the 14 lawmakers loyal to him fled and regrouped in Lagos, where Ladoja continued to take responsibility for the welfare of the lawmakers, who demanded to be paid a monthly income of N1m each after their salaries and allowances had been stopped.
Justice Idris has adjourned till March 27, 2017 for Atanda to continue his testimony.
