January 22, 2006
Adedibu's latest outburst ? My P.A. is the deputy governor Saturday Sun: Sir, we heard that there is a kind of disagreement over who will be the deputy governor. What is the situation? That is exactly what happened during Ladoja's time when there were claims that both of us disagreed on who should be commissioner. It was not true. The list I gave to Ladoja was the one that he announced. We have chosen who will be the deputy governor. He is my own personal assistant, Hazim Gbolarumi. He will be sworn-in next week. The House of Assembly will have to ratify his appointment. But we heard that somebody from the State House of Assembly was to be made the deputy governor. What happened? I don't know where you got that information. To the best of my knowledge, Gbolarumi is the deputy governor. We also heard that whoever is chosen as the deputy governor, his name would be submitted to the Presidency for security checks. Have they done that? They know that we will not do something which is not fair. Gbolarumi is a young man who has good reputation. He is above 45 years of age. He is my boy. He is from Ibadan here. What qualifies him to be chosen as deputy governor. Loyalty Loyalty to who, sir? He is very loyal, and committed to the party, People Democratic Party. And, loyalty to you, sir? No, not only to me but to all the leaders of the party. Nobody can ever dispute that. He refused bluntly to submit to the threats by Ladoja to deal with him because they are from the same local government . Ladoja's people have denied us of many of our rights. Gbolarumi told me, even when the threats and intimidation from Ladoja was getting too much. So for his loyalty, party leaders have decided to compensate him.In a way, you are compensating him for the role he played? The party compensated him. It is because we trust him to be very loyal to the party and committed to the party. Loyalty matters in politics. There is no 99.9% loyalty in politics like Obasanjo said. You must be 100% loyal to the party and the party leaders. Some people faulted Obasanjo's claim that you must have 100% loyalty. People are saying that 100% loyalty is not possible in politics unless you are instituting dictatorship. Loyalty means a lot in politics. Loyalty means steadfastness. People must know you for where you are. They must know you for principled stand. That is loyalty. We understand that there are moves to make peace between Baba's camp and Ladoja's own. How far is this true? Ladoja was my own follower, he has no camp. I will move, and he will follow me. Where does he have camp? Everybody knows this. It is because he was at a time the state governor that he and his supporters were thinking that they had a camp. Now that he is no longer in control of the government, he has nobody. But are there moves to make peace between you and Ladoja? I will never sit down with him, never is my heart will I ever contemplate sitting down with him. Why sir? He has been writing and saying a lot of things about me which are not palatable. He has however forgotten how I have helped him, and his career. I will never sit down with him at all. Never. As a good Muslim, and he knew that Islam preaches forgiveness. You insisted that the man must go, and he has gone, but if he comes, or if someone brought him and asked you to forgive him as your son, what happens? President Olusegun Obasanjo knelt down for me more than six times. I swear in the name of God, begging on behalf of Ladoja. But I said, no. How do you expect me to pardon Ladoja? Somebody I brought into the party who later said that he had expelled me from the same party? Apart from that, there was a day I was going to the Central Mosque in company of my family members, Ladoja sent people to ambush me, and they forcefully took the vehicle from me. Your own car? No. Obasanjo gave me three vehicles for his own campaign. I gave one to the chairman of the party, I gave another one to the party secretary, while I kept the remaining one. But Ladoja's thugs forcefully took away that vehicle from me. Somebody who can do that kind of thing to me, how do you expect me to forgive him? He told me once time that his father was ?? Myself and his father contested election together in April 1954. His father was NCNC but I belonged to the Action Group. His father said to me, after Ladoja was elected as governor, that although he thanked me for making sure that Rashidi became governor, but that if I had asked him about which one of his sons I would have preferred to be governor, he would have picked another son. Why did he say that sir? Because people know Rashidi Ladoja. Go and find out from people what kind of person he is. You said earlier that one of the reasons you disagreed with him was because he denied you your right. What did he deny you? It was the party that gave him 10 names out of 15 nominees for commissioners, initially. When he became powerful, he sacked all the 10 party nominees in the cabinet and appointed non-party men who we never knew; who never worked for the party. Let me give another fact. All the party leaders in Oyo State, none of them is with Rashidi Ladoja. We have two senators from PDP in Oyo State, they are both in my camp. Nine PDP members in the House of Representations from Oyo State are with him. They are all in my camp. We started the impeachment process against him with 21 members of the State House of Assembly, but he succeeded in buying three to his camp. Thereafter, we didn't allow him to succeed in poaching any of the members again. But people are saying that the impeachment process was illegal because 18 members can't form two-third? It is not illegal. Let me tell you, constitution or law, that is for you men. God has his own law. It is God's intervention that saw Ladoja being removed from office. So, constitution didn't matter? Almighty God will not fold his hands to watch Ladoja for what he did to me. I put him there by the will of God. But the way he treated me was very, very bad. Rashidi was an evil man and the end of evil men are usually not good, it is always disastrous. When the people are talking about 32 members in the House, they fail to remember that when I was struggling to put people there, that is the lawmakers, Rashidi was not there. He never knew them. Rashidi suspended seven out of the 32 members, remaining 25. But I want to let you know that legally speaking, we have 25 members. And if you look at our own figure of 18, we are absolutely in the majority. With the 18 members out of 25, we have already formed two-third. Ladoja has been impeached, but it appears that some kind of friction still exists, there is still division among the lawmakers. What effort is on to settle that? They are all coming back. They are all from here. I put all of them there. They are all coming back together to work as a team. They are all my boys. I don't know whether you have watched television lately. The recurring reports about you is your statement that Ladoja was getting N65 million monthly as security votes and you expected that...? They said it is because of money that we are guarelling. But I swear in the name of God that I never asked Ladoja for money and he never gave me. Mr President gave him directive to come and see me. Now, I ask the question: did he need to wait for me to ask for money before he gave me? I am putting this question to the whole country. Don't I deserve to get money from him? But people ask whether I expect him to go and steal government money. But I said, they are giving him security vote and the reason they are giving him is because government doesn't want trouble or crisis in any part of the country. If you work for somebody, by helping to put him in a position and he doesn't give his helper his dues after being helped... He didn't have money when we were campaigning; did he know where I got money to campaign, to prosecute his election? How much did you spend on the campaign? Well, God knows from here and there people helped us. What I am saying is that if he didn't give me money and I didn't ask for it, whoever has a God-fearing mind, what would he say about it? Did I not deserve something from that government? My son wanted a job, he approved the job before he was sworn in. But when he got into government, he gave the job to his own son. That is what started the whole quarrel. This is the son I am talking about, Jubril Adedibu. When did this happen, sir? That was the beginning of the whole thing - in 2003. He was congratulating the boy here. As soon as he got into office, he gave it to his own son. What kind of job was that sir? (To the son)Tell them the job. (Jubril speaking:) Revenue collection on hostels and inspection. As a consultant to be collecting revenue for the government while earning commission. But he gave the job to his son. (Adedibu takes over:) Even when they settled the whole thing, he was the one who re-opened the issue. He asked Jubril come and collect documents. The boy went there more than seven times, he didn't give him. He is very unkind. There is also the allegation that you asked for allocation for the house here in Molete from the government? Look, I am not managing life. We started politics from Macpherson Constitution 1951 and I've been in it for good and for bad. Sometimes in opposition; sometime in government. The military ruled us for 30 years, was I not living? Was I not building houses? Were my children not going to school? When they say we live on politics were we not living. About NLC?? Don't mind them, what is the percentage of their vote? When we move out you will see us. We are the controllers of the people. They gave them money. You will se when we move out. Are you saying NLC took bribe? Yes, they took bribe. Did you see any quarrel in town. Is anybody killing people? Does anybody fight now? There is fear that when two elephants like Baba and his son fight, it is the grass that suffers? He is not an elephant. He became senator from here. His political life started here and ends here. Some ask about the fate of the common people of Oyo State? They are all relieved. The man who was giving them hardship is gone. They are all relieved. Ladoja issued a statement that he was coming back to government house?? And he didn't come. When we were campaigning, we were coming from Ogbomosho via Oyo, when we got to Isale Oyo, they started stoning us, ole! Ole! Ole! He ran away. It was six days before I saw him. He went to Cotonou and phoned from there. We campaigned in Isale Oyo without him for three days. Are you suggesting that he is a coward? That is left for you to answer. When he knew he couldn't come, why did he say he would come? It was an empty boast. Even if Obasanjo leads him, he wouldn't come.
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