January 30, 2007
Above The Law
While Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu breaks the law with impunity, Aso Rock and the Police look the other way. Here is why ADEMOLA ADEGBAMIGBE The jaw of any tourist, researcher or journalist who visits the Molete, Ibadan, Oyo State home of Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu will, for hours, hang slack. This is because of the surfeit of materials that can serve as proof and symbols of the crude politics of this Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) top notcher.First, the environment exhibits the opulence of a man of means who controls an army of ultra-loyal supporters (mechanics, drivers, bricklayers, butchers and the disaffected) whose daily needs Adedibu meets. Like a Mafia boss who does no piety without a reward, watchers of Adedibu’s brand of politics say he deploys these people for political thuggery since he can make them cause mischief at the snap of his fingers. Adedibu has, for years, been able to use these rabble to control power in Oyo State.
On Wednesday 24 January 2007 when TheNEWS journalists visited, the environment was thronged by people seeking one favour or the other and perhaps those waiting for instructions to cause some mayhem in some remote places.
Adedibu breezed out of his house at exactly 9.30a.m. Those who had been waiting collided with one another to prostrate before him. With little notice of the fawning heads on the floor, the Lord of the Manor, his hands characteristically inside his agbada, bent forward, walking briskly. When the magazine’s journalists were introduced to him, he, in an avuncularly disarming way, grabbed the hand of their leader, clasped it under his armpit and led him and his colleagues to his court where the interview was to take place. Others followed in tow. But before this, the crew was able to survey the environment.
On entering the premises, the first structure that catches the attention of any visitor is the one-storey central mosque which has four minarets, each with the star and crescent symbol of Islam. One of these has a megaphone through which the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer. A spiralling staircase connects the ground and top floors, held together by 28 pillars. Adding to the rarefied atmosphere are Arabic letters on relief, etched against a black background. Behind the mosque is an ablution section under construction.
A road separates this house of prayer from a row of one, two and three-storey buildings painted in the national colours of green-white-green. Still occupying the right side of the compound is another ultra-modern structure being erected. Alhaji Adedibu’s main residence, which the visitor faces as he approaches, is undergoing renovation, with new pillars serving as reinforcement.
While the perimeter walls have also been raised with an internal layer of granite, the compound itself has been so expanded so that one could see the Molete bridge at a distance. The wall was broken to allow workmen and heavy equipment access to another sprawling structure springing up at the back. Apart from pigeons that were feeding on remnants of the previous night’s feast, over 15 rams and 10 cows roamed freely, grazing and chewing the cud at a section. Occasionally, the visitors received some dour, sideway glances from the beasts as if to warn them (intruders) that a kick from their hindquarters could be dangerous below the belt. About 95 mattresses, probably used by the politician’s army of supporters and thugs were dumped in a heap in an open space.
Adding to the grandeur of the compound were over 100 vehicles when the journalists visited last week. Among them were a blue modern Volkswagen Beetle, grey Peugeot saloon, a Pajero jeep, a white Nissan pick-up van, blue 505 Peugeot and an Oyo State House of Assembly Coaster bus. Also in the fleet was the grey Chevrolet Express with registration number Oyo AE 85AYT, with which Oyo State House of Assembly’s mace was confiscated by Adedibu and his hoodlums
The most important among the structures in Adedibu’s compound is the court where he receives visitors and dispenses justice. Arranged in two rows were 13 leather settees, seven black leather-top centre tables and a giant “port-a-cool” fan, enclosed in a mammoth wooden structure that looks like an abandoned high-definition television box.
Here, Adedibu’s politics, which respects no ideological categories, is on display through photographs, plaques and other memorabilia. On the outside wall are portraits of late politicians like Adegoke Adelabu, Ladoke Akintola, Obafemi Awolowo, Tafawa Balewa and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. Inside the hall are photographs of Adedibu’s moments with other politicians like suspended Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State, President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Senate President Adolphus Wabara, the late Chief MKO Abiola, General Buba Marwa and others.
Among all these, three objects were particularly striking. First, the PDP billboard at the entrance, with a website, www.bjvision2007.com, describes Adedibu as “an institution.”
Second, is a photograph showing a publisher of a national daily presenting an award to Adedibu, for “political consistency.” Closely linked to this is a plaque, presented by Alhaji and Alhaja Kasali Ajani, congratulating Adedibu on his honour as “the most consistent politician in Nigeria.” To the artwork, the couple added a quote attributed to Adedibu himself: “Men acquire a particular quality constantly acting in a particular way.” How symbolic and apt!
For watchers of his politics, Adedibu has been constantly acting in a particular way, using generosity, thuggery, money, craftiness, sycophancy or loyalty to the powers that be to escape the long arm of the law. All these have manifested in the Rashidi Ladoja impeachment saga, the Oyo Assembly impasse, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) machines accusation and others. In spite of Chief Adedibu’s breaches of the law, he is not asked any question by the authorities. Rather, he struts the land with an exaggerated swagger.
Last Monday, six Direct Data Machines of INEC were allegedly found in the home or Chief Adedibu. That was 24 hours after two were discovered in the home of a top government official when Adebayo Alao-Akala was the governor.
Mr. Sunday Ehindero, the Inspector-General of Police, threatened to arrest anyone caught in connection with the crime. “In the case of Chief Adedibu and reports that some INEC machines were allegedly found in his home, I want to say that we are investigating the allegation. In fact, I have directed the Commissioner of Police, Oyo State to personally investigate the matter,” he said. “If investigation proves that the allegation was true, I want to assure you that the full weight of the law would be brought to bear.”
Adedibu’s response when TheNEWS confronted him on Wednesday 24 January 2007 showed that Ehindero’s threat was mere effusion of gas. In Adedibu’s words:
“They are telling lies. How can they get six? If the whole local governments are yet to have six, how then can they have six in my house? Where were the machines? Were they discovered by the police or by the SSS or by anybody? Who discovered them? Where were the machines at the time of discovery? Did they find the machines in my house really? These are questions they must answer and nobody has ever asked me, whether the police or SSS, about the machines. My accusers want to bring something out of nothing. The accusation is not correct.”
He reasoned that there is no official place designated by INEC for registration. Registration, according to him, cannot be rigged and it is impossible for a person to register twice because of thumbprints. He swore that registration did not take place in his house. But he unwittingly injected a contradiction when he told TheNEWS: “My properties are very many in this area. If they stand in the front of any of my properties and are registering there, all other places where they are registering people, which I can take you to, are in the front of the house of some other people. What is the problem of registration of people in my own house? Why should anybody connect those things to my house?”
To further prove that Ehindero’s boast was needless, this magazine met Isyaku Maigoro, the Oyo State Resident Electoral Commissioner in his Agodi, Ibadan secretariat office and asked whether the commission would prosecute Adedibu. Magoro reacted angrily: “Why are you here? If you need anything, go to Abuja... Why should I arrest him? He is not our staff.”
Another incident which requires police and Aso Rock questioning was the attack by Adedibu’s thugs on Senator Lekan Balogun, a convener of the PDP’s stakeholders forum. In the process, the hoodlums allegedly confiscated a pistol belonging to a State Security Service (SSS) operative. Adedibu later returned the gun to the police.
Narrating his experience to TheNEWS, Senator Balogun said: “I went to the Oyo State House of Assembly to see the group of 18 lawmakers loyal to Pa Lamidi Ariyibi Adedibu. There was a prior understanding that I was coming. Unfortunately, the honourable members were not there when I got there. Coming out of the legislative complex, the hoodlums approached us and said, he is Adeojo’s man and I asked if I looked like Adeojo. They said, he has brought Ladoja’s lawmakers and I asked them, where are they? Then they started shouting, we do not want peace, we do not want peace, we do not want peace. Before we knew what was happening, they had brought out offensive weapons like machetes, cutlasses and others and started attacking us. If not the protection of my security aides I would have been killed. One remarkable thing about the crowd is that I know virtually all of them.”
He reeled out the names of the thugs that attacked him: Sule Adu, Lati Elewe Omo, Concord, Egbeda Tunnila ( a woman), Gala, Alado, Ismail Agbaje, Alhaji Bola, Wasiu, Lateef Azeem, chairman Iwo Road/Dugbe National Union of Road Transport Workers. Balogun advised the authorities to arrest and prosecute the Ibadan politician.
Alhaji Adedibu, however, told this medium that Balogun was lying. He argued that the Senator, in his purported reconciliation moves, went to the House of Assembly to meet the 20 majority members without informing him.
He implied that the fracas and the seizure of the gun were in self-defence. In his words: “He (Balogun) went to the House of Assembly to meet the 20 members of the House, the majority members, without informing me, without informing the people that he was coming. And when he was going, he went with security, with guns. What do you expect of them? We know who he is. He is for Ladoja. The people are not for Ladoja. He was coming with security, with guns in their hands. What did he expect them to do? It was the women that handled him, not the honourable members, because the honourable members were not there. It was only the supporters of the honourable members that were there. So the women disarmed them. It was the women that disarmed them. We don’t have any respect for Dr. Balogun here. He is for Ladoja. He sent him to appeal to those honourable members who were not in the House at the time he went there. He never told them he was coming to meet them and he was going, he went with security with guns in their hands. What did you expect the people to do? And you can see the lie that he was beaten. If he was beaten, where was he hospitalised? Where are the wounds on him? They didn’t beat him. It was women, women.”
Contrary to Balogun’s claim, Adedibu swore that he did not inform him about his mission, because on both sides of the quarrel, “I am the main issue.” To him, Balogun was just trying to gain cheap popularity.
On whether or not he was afraid of arrest over the matter, Alhaji Adedibu said defiantly, to the admiration of his supporters: “I am available, I am available.” His followers, who attentively listened to the interview with the journalists, yelled like wolves in a pack.
The attack on Balogun was one of the domino effects of the crisis in Oyo State House of Assembly and the impeachment of Governor Rashidi Ladoja, which were engineered by Adedibu.
Trouble started on 12 January 2006 when 18 members of the Oyo legislature, who were loyal to Adedibu, impeached Governor Ladoja. They did not form a quorum in the 32-member House and their decision was taken outside the legislative chambers, at a hotel. Alao Akala, Ladoja’s deputy, was sworn in as the new governor.
Three days before the impeachment, three members of the House had filed a suit in an Ibadan High Court, under Justice M. Bolaji Yusuf, challenging the process. Moreover, they filed a Motion on Notice for an interlocutory injunction, restraining the Acting Chief Judge of the state from setting up a panel to investigate the alleged offences of Ladoja. Although the ACJ was reportedly served the notices and, through his counsel, told Bolaji Yusuf’s court that he would not act in any way to endanger the motion and notice, he inaugurated a seven-man panel that probed Ladoja. Consequently, the 18 lawmakers, without forming a quorum, purportedly impeached Ladoja.
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The removal of Ladoja had the indirect approval of President Olusegun Obasanjo. He actually advised Ladoja to resign or be impeached. In fact, Adedibu, in his threat, gave the actual time that the governor would be booted out: after the Sallah holidays. It happened.
Adedibu who Dr. Ahmadu Ali, the PDP chairman, referred to as the “garrison commander,” allegedly complained that Ladoja “is too greedy.” He added that he was “collecting N65 million as security vote every month. You know that governors don’t account for security vote. He was to give me N15 million of that every month. He reneged. Later it was reduced to N10 million. Yet he did not give me.”
However, Ladoja reacted that they did not reach any agreement about money. “We did not reach any agreement about sharing money. When he asked me about his own share, I asked him under which account should I put it... The understanding of both of us of what governance is supposed to be differs. The difference is that I see governance as service while he sees it as business...After we had our quarrel in 1994 and we wanted to make up in 2002, he came to see me and said, Rasheed what do you want? I said I wanted to be governor and he said, then let us work together. I said without him, we had been winning elections, so what is it that you can do that I cannot do and he said three things. One, he asked me: do you know how to abuse people? And I said no. Then he asked: can you take away your clothes in the public and fight? I said no. Thirdly, he asked: can you tell lies against somebody and swear on the Qur’an and again call witnesses? Again I said impossible. Then he said, those are the things we always use in politics.”
However, all these changed on Wednesday 1 November 2006 when the Appeal Court, sitting in Ibadan and presided over by Justice J.O. Ogebe threw out the purported impeachment of Ladoja. The court held that this violated Section 188(1-9) of the 1999 Constitution which contains the correct processes of impeaching a governor. After this judgement, Adedibu and his men vowed that Ladoja would not resume. They were emboldened by Ehindero’s statement that the police “would only maintain the status quo ante bellium.”
After the judgment, Adedibu had stormed the governor’s office in convoy with his well-armed boys, including one of his toughies, Tokyo. He boasted that the judgement of the court would not be upheld as long as he was alive, adding that there was no way Ladoja could return to Agodi, the seat of power.
“The ruling of the Court of Appeal has nothing to do with what we want. What we want is Akala, not Ladoja who does not know anything. He lacks respect for elders and the party. He is empty and that is why he was unable to execute a single project when he was on throne. We will not allow him to come back to the governor’s office. If he likes himself, let him stay clear of the governor’s office,” Adedibu threatened.
The menacing look of Adedibu’s supporters and their dangerous driving caused panic in the entire town, more especially at Iwo Road, Ibadan-Ife Road, Agodi, Beere, Dugbe, Molete and Mapo. Although nobody died, the commercial activities of the day were disrupted as many people had to go back to their different homes to avoid being attacked by hoodlums.
Akala boasted that nobody could move him out of the secretariat and governor’s office because his name was not mentioned in the ruling of the court. He pointed out that the concerned party, which is the state House of Assembly, had appealed against the ruling.
Moroof Atilola, who had assumed speakership of the House, also warned the same day that Ladoja should never attempt resuming if his life was precious to him. “I want to appeal to the erstwhile governor not to think of coming back. But if he feels like daring it, then he should not be bothered about what happens to him.”
The third day, hoodlums invaded the home of Ladoja’s supporter, Honourable Fatai Buhari, representing Ogbomosho North, South and Orire Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives. It began at about 3p.m. at Oja Igbo area of Ogbomosho when hoodlums in the camp of Akala went out and destroyed a billboard belonging to the legislator. They moved to Ibapon in Ogbomosho South Local Government throwing stones.
Eventually, they burst into the legislator’s residence and beat his wife, Hajiya Sayo Buhari.
On 4 November, Akala’s deputy governor, Gbolarunmi led party supporters armed with machetes and other lethal weapons into the streets. Members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) played a prominent role in the fracas as they joined in the attack on perceived enemies as early as 7a.m.
Again on 6 November, Adedibu’s hoodlums took over Ibadan, causing mayhem in a bid to prevent Ladoja from taking over power that day. The trouble spilled over to the Popoyemoja office of the former governor of the state, Alhaji Lamidi Adesina. He reportedly lost millions of naira to the fracas.
On 13 November, NURTW members became lawless over the arrest of their Chairman, Tokyo by men of SSS who whisked him to Abuja. But Adedibu secured his release effortlessly, with the help of Aso Rock.
A fall-out of this power tussle is the impasse in the Oyo State House of Assembly where the 18 pro-Adedibu group declared that the 12 Ladoja loyalists had ceased to be members. This became a subject of protracted legal tussle.
But this came to an end on Tuesday 9 January 2007 when Justice Masud Abass of Oyo State High Court 13, Ring Road Ibadan, ruled in favour of the Ladoja faction.
Justice Abass, in his ruling on the suit filed on 18 December 2006 restraining Atilola Morufu Olawale and Taiwo Oluyemi (Adedibu loyalists) as speaker and deputy speaker of Oyo State, authenticated Abraham Adeolu Adeleke and Titilola Ademola Dauda (Ladoja loyalists) as speaker and deputy speaker of the state.
Abass ruled, inter alia: “It is hereby declared that the 1st and 2nd plaintiffs (Abraham Adeleke and Titilola Dauda) are speaker and deputy speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly respectively. It is hereby declared that the 1st and 2nd plaintiffs have not been validly removed as speaker and deputy speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly and The 1st and 2nd defendants (Atilola Olawale and Taiwo Oluyemi) are hereby restrained from parading themselves as speaker and deputy speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly respectively until the 1st and 2nd plaintiffs are validly removed from office as the speaker and deputy speaker of Oyo State House of Assembly respectively.”
Shortly after the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court reinstated Governor Ladoja as the governor of Oyo State, the 18 pro-Adedibu lawmakers vowed not only to disallow Ladoja from resuming the office, but also prevent the 12 pro-Ladoja legislators from going back to the House and ensure that Adeleke and Dauda never presided over the affairs of the state House of Assembly.
To prove their seriousness, aside from hijacking the House of Assembly by besieging the premises with political thugs and over 100 mobile policemen, they further seized the mace and kept it with Adedibu, their godfather, thereby making it practically impossible for the other faction to conduct proceedings. They brought the mace to the Assembly amid heavy security in Adedibu’s ash-coloured Chevrolet 3500 car marked Oyo AE 85 AYT. Determined to make the government of Ladoja fail, they kept passing resolutions against the decision of the state government. And to worsen matters, they have scared away the 12 pro-Ladoja lawmakers with political thugs and mobile policemen.
To claim their mandate, the 12 lawmakers secured an interim injunction from a High Court restraining Olawale and Oluyemi as speaker and deputy respectively. Granting the injunction, Justice Abass said: “ The 1st respondent, Honorable Atilola Morufu Olawale is hereby restrained from parading himself as the speaker and/or acting speaker of Oyo State House of Assembly pending the determination of the motion on notice. The 2nd respondent, Honourable Taiwo Oluyemi is hereby restrained from parading himself as the deputy speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly pending the determination of the motion on notice.”
However, rather than allow the original officials to assume control, the Adedibu faction disobeyed the court order by appointing Oloye Akinrinade as Acting Speaker. That still left Adeleke in the cold. The lead counsel to Adeleke, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has urged the High Court to enforce the rulings of the Appeal and Supreme courts.
Apart from the courts, the Oyo legislative war has shifted to the electoral plane. The Adedibu faction have claimed that the seats of the 12 lawmakers had been declared vacant by INEC, which wanted to organise a bye-election to fill them on 13 January. But the Ladoja faction stormed the Abuja office of INEC with a protest letter and a copy of the High Court ruling in their favour. With that judgement, INEC reversed itself.
The tension in the Oyo Assembly prompted the House of Representatives to threaten to take it over. According to Alhaji Aminu Waziri Tambulwal, the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) leader in the House, Section 11 of the 1999 Constitution empowers the Lower House to take over any state assembly where there is a breakdown of law and order.
“We hear stories of hoodlums eating amala, drinking beer and dancing owambe inside the state House of Assembly after they chased out the legislators,” Tambuwal said.
Why have the police been impotent in dealing with the Adedibu menace? The Oyo State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, AbdulRaheem Shittu reasoned:
“The Nigeria Police is one of the most effective police in terms of training, orientation, experience at beating people into line. When you now have a situation where they have failed or refused to carry out their constitutional roles and responsibilities, then I think in particular, the press and the general public should start asking questions. What I would expect is that they ought not to be partisan. They are supposed to be fair to all parties concerned. So when they refused to be fair and they assumed a partisan posture, they are in the best position to tell us why they are maintaining that position which would give one side the opportunity of thinking that they are unfair.”
Adeleke, the speaker, also told TheNEWS that the Adebibu faction is using the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Jonathan Johnson to foment trouble.
The other reason is Adedibu’s control of the masses, who he feeds with amala every time. He challenged TheNEWS to “come here every Friday and see what we do with less privileged people. You will see how many people we are paying their school fees, how many people I sponsor in school.”
In one of his articles in Thisday, Eniola Bello wrote: “With them (the masses), Adedibu has succeeded in having substantial control of Ibadan, nay Oyo State politics since the political transition programme of the Babangida administration. And to ensure the loyalty of the followers, Adedibu became a political mercenary available to the highest bidder.”
Examples were the late politicians, General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, MKO Abiola and now the Obasanjo government. According to an Aso Rock source, Adedibu is such a grassroots mobiliser that any attempt to “deal with him could lead to chaos and loss of votes for the PDP in Oyo State.”
However, Adedibu warned that his people should not be referred to as thugs. In his words: “When people do something wrong and you want to fight for your right, they will say you are a thug. The day Awolowo was made Premier of the Western Region, we applied to use Mapo Hall and we paid two pounds. They gave us receipt and approval to make use of Mapo and Adelabu was Chairman of the council and at the same time, member of the House of Assembly. Awolowo was coming from John Rankin, where he was sworn-in. But before we got to Mapo, Adelabu had locked the hall. Was it legal for him to have done that? Awolowo said we should leave it but we said no. He had taken the laws into his hands and we had to react. So I broke down the door. So I don’t understand when they say ‘thuggery, thuggery.’ What is thuggery in that? They didn’t say anything about the man locking the door illegally.”
With the likes of Adedibu parading the corridors of power, can Nigerian democracy mature or survive?
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