August 29, 2007
Like a grizzly bear being led to the stakes, with fang-baring dogs baying for its blood, Governor Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala is in deep trouble. The Oyo State Chief Executive is buffeted from all sides by the manner of his exit from the Nigeria Police, the case against him at the Election Petitions Tribunal, his indictment for corrupt enrichment, the emasculation of his godfather, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu by the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Samuel Odulana and his investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Of all the problems Alao-Akala faces currently, the most potentially destructive is the manner of his exit from the Nigeria Police Force. Alao-Akala exited the Nigeria Police in less than glorious circumstances, something that his critics describe as a huge moral burden to himself and a veritable embarrassment to the political class in general.
The Oyo State helmsman is also entangled in a legal web over the legitimacy of his governorship. The excrement of this matter hit the fan in May 2007 when the National Democratic Party (NDP) wrote a petition, giving reasons why Alao-Akala should not be sworn in on the 29th of that month. According to Dr. Toriola Oyewo, counsel to the NDP governorship candidate, Mr. Ademola Ayonde, Alao-Akala was compulsorily retired from the police vide a letter with reference number PSA/S/3/149 of 7 September 1995, which emanated from the Secretary of the Nigeria Police Council.
The petitioners quoted letters, dated 23 and 26 of that month, written by Alao-Akala, through which he tried unsuccessfully to have his compulsory retirement reviewed. “More often than not,” the writers argued, “officers found guilty of corruption, dishonesty, embezzlement, fraud are normally dismissed from service.” They added that such erring officers are sometimes compulsorily retired as a face-saving measure.
Ayoade and Oyewo maintained that before his exit from the police, he did not bear the name Alao-Akala, but Christopher Adebayo Alao and insinuating that he (Alao-Akala) had something to hide by changing his name.
But the governor’s spokesman, Prince Dotun Oyelade, argued that his boss came from a reputable family in Ogbomoso and that his forebears were known as Akala, a name which stuck to him when he was Chairman of Ogbomoso South Local Government.
Meanwhile, Saharareporters, an internet-based investigative unit, has exhumed Alao-Akala’s hidden cadaver. It quoted from the 7 September 1995 letter signed by J.A. Obe (mni), the Secretary of the Nigeria Police Service Council: “In view of the serious act of misconduct against you from which you have not exonerated yourself, the Head of State and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces, after due consultation and deliberation, and as the appropriate authority in this regard, and in accordance with the provisions of the Public Officers (Special Provision) Decree No. 17 of 1984, has decided to compulsorily retire you in public interest.”
That Alao-Akala was not dismissed was, according to TheNEWS findings, the handiwork of his boss and fellow Ogbomoso man, former Inspector-General of Police, Sunday Adewusi. He also made an effort to escape compulsory retirement by approaching Chief Afe Babalola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, to beg the then Head of State, General Sani Abacha to have mercy on him. The legal practitioner’s intercession, through a letter to Abacha, who probably was not given the correct picture of the matter, did not succeed.
Among his major assignments, Alao-Akala, as this magazine gathered, was Divisional Police Officer at Agodi (a station that, as at 1995, gained some notoriety as a detention centre for financial scammers) and Iponri. He was also, at a time, Adewusi’s Personal Assistant.
With regard to this, the Action Congress (AC), through its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, asked Alao-Akala to resign. AC said it is a crying shame for the law enforcement agencies and INEC that it took a non-governmental organization, Campaign for Integrity (CI), to unearth a 12-year-old public document that is critical to Alao-Akala’s qualification to contest election in the first place.
The party added that Alao-Akala “swore to an oath in his INEC form that he had never been indicted by any administrative panel. Therefore, with the revelation that he was actually indicted and compulsorily retired from the force, he has lost every reason to remain in office,” Alhaji Mohammed quoted the NGO as saying. He added that the governor affixed “Akala” to his name to cover up his past misdeeds.
Oyelade, however, dismissed the allegation as the handiwork of Akala’s detractors whom he advised to seek redress at the Election Petitions Tribunal.
Even so, the Tribunal is not a sanctuary for Alao-Akala who has become the butt of more damning allegations that may see his victory in the governorship election being upturned.
Now Alao-Akala is facing the heat at the election petitions tribunal sitting over the April 2007 governorship poll in Oyo State. The Tribunal, on 9 August 2007, granted an order to the Republican Party of Nigeria (RPN) governorship candidate in the last gubernatorial election, Alhaji Mueez Akande, to tender in evidence, the judgment of an Oyo State High Court that knocked out Alao-Akala’s applications challenging the Administrative Panel that indicted him. Akande is one of those seeking to see the back of Alao-Akala from Agodi Government House. Others are Senator Abiola Ajimobi of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and Demola Ayoade of the Democratic Party of Nigeria (DPN).
When the tribunal sat on 8 August 2007, Toriola, Ayoade’s counsel, filed a motion before the tribunal to tender at the hearings, the verdicts of the state High Court with number M/255/2007 and M/249/2007 and a notice of appeal on the quashing of the indictment by Justice Afolabi Adeniran, the acting Chief Judge.
Oyewo’s argument was that the documents would prove the incompetence “and jurisdictional deficiency of (Adeniran) in adjudicating over the same matter that had earlier been determined by a court of coordinate jurisdiction.” The documents were the separate judgments of Justice Gboyega Gbolagunte of the state High Court which shredded Alao-Akala’s two applications praying for the quashing of his indictment, and a notice of appeal against Adeniran’s verdict which dismissed the Governor’s indictment.
Although lawyers refused to be directly named in the matter, one of them explained to TheNEWS the background. Alao-Akala, according to him, governed the state for 11 months but stayed away from the panel. But when he was sworn in as Governor on 29 May, he acted in a jiffy. He elbowed aside Justice John Ige, the former acting Chief Judge and appointed Justice Adeniran who, with the ease with which hot knife slashes through butter, quashed the indictment on 6 June.
Three days before that, however, Justice Gbolagunte who heard the case, refused to make it null and void because an Osogbo High Court “where similar case was instituted has not allowed its withdrawal”.
This development has created a triangular conflict among members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Justice Adeniran and Alao-Akala himself.
First, critics say Alao-Akala installed Adeniran (who has now retired) to do a dirty job for him after he (the governor) removed the former CJ, Justice John Ige, who refused to play ball.
Two days before Adeniran’s judgment, Barristers A. A. Shittu and S.A. Ali wrote a petition to the Chief Justice of the Federation. In their words: “Nigerians should recall that the acting Chief Judge of Oyo State, during the foregoing scenario was Hon. Justice John Ige, who was barely two months in office as acting Chief Judge.” They added that because he refused to be used to engage in judicial rascality and illegality in the hands of Adebayo Alao-Akala, he was unceremoniously and unconstitutionally removed from his post. The natural beneficiary of this mischief, according to them, was, not surprisingly, Justice Afolabi Adeniran, the former but discredited acting Chief Judge who facilitated the illegal impeachment of erstwhile Governor Rashidi Ladoja.
Unfortunately for Oyo State, the lawyers lamented, Adeniran “remains a judge of Oyo State Judiciary, despite his past dishonourable role in the impeachment saga. To start with, Justice Afolabi Adeniran is not only a townsman of Otunba Alao-Akala but, indeed, his cousin who has agreed to be recruited to facilitate the quashing of the said indictment through reassigning of a relevant case file to himself for hearing and determination”.
After Adeniran confirmed their worst fears, the two lawyers fired another petition, dated 11 June 2007, raising many allegations against the Chief Judge.
They argued that Justice Adeniran refused to join both the chairman and members of the Administrative Panel of Enquiry and erstwhile Governor Rashidi Ladoja as interested parties to the suit. Moreover, the judge refused to disqualify himself as prayed for, despite the discreet initiation and commencement of the case, and the evidences of “allegation of corruption levelled against him.”
The lawyers added that by rushing the case from filing in his chambers up to final judgment all within 24 hours, the maximum period, the judge prevented the case from being heard and determined on its merit, “moreso that the Applicants and the Respondents are all one and the same”.
The lawyers argued further that Justice Afolabi Adeniran agreed to be reappointed as acting Chief Judge in questionable circumstances, without due regard for the law, and for the sole purpose of his assigning Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala’s case to himself, so that he could assist the former to annul his previous indictment which is the subject-matter of many other court cases.
In view of the foregoing, the lawyers wrote, “we humbly urge the National Judicial Council to investigate and sanction Justice Adeniran for his destructive role in this all-important and sensitive judicial exercise.”
Other aspects of the war at the tribunal are the contents of the report of the administrative panel, being investigated by EFCC. The body indicted Alao-Akala for his role in a N753 million contract scam and recommended that Alao-Akala and the then chairman of the state Education Board, Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, should be barred from holding public office.
The contracts, among others, were for the procurement of a 1,000 KVA generator, supply of text books and ambulances, computerisation of civil servants’ quarters and supply of 360,000 bags of rice.
Meanwhile, at the tribunal, proof of electoral malpractices by Alao-Akala’s agents were provided, a development that his supporters fear might lead to the nullification of his electoral victory.
In their petition to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the forum of Oyo State Governorship Candidates, comprising Ayoade, Akinboade and Akande, protested malpractices perpetrated by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
In the whole of Oyo North and parts of Oyo Central and South senatorial districts, the logo, party name and photograph of the DPA gubernatorial candidate was, according to them, omitted from the ballot paper and the logo of the DPN was incorrect, thereby disenfranchising the candidates and the electorate.
The election was in their words marred by widespread electoral malpractices, monumental irregularities and violation of electoral processes in favour of the PDP, especially in Lagelu, Ogbomoso North, Ogbomoso South, Orire, Ogo-Oluwa, Surulere and Iseyin Local Government areas. “The confidence the participants earlier had by participating in the said gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections had been eroded by the results declared by your Commission,” they declared. They maintained that in those areas elections were characterised by violence, sporadic shooting, seizure of several ballot boxes containing votes already cast and taken to unknown destinations by thugs in connivance with agents of PDP and, in some cases, policemen and INEC staff.
The governorship candidates revealed that some policemen were arrested by soldiers, openly thumb-printing ballot papers in booklets in favour of the PDP. In some places, innocent voters and agents of parties other than those of PDP were openly intimidated by thugs comprising mainly the Alhaji Akinsola Lateef (Tokyo)-led faction of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW). The election was also characterized by non-appearance of electoral personnel at polling units, and manipulation of election results by INEC officials. Ayoade and his colleagues argued further that many of the above irregularities were witnessed and captured by pressmen on camera, observers and members of the Armed Forces that were later called into the areas to forestall breakdown of law and order. Indeed, armed forces personnel arrested 260 people, majority of whom were PDP faithful. The number of arrested people would have been more had soldiers been authorised earlier to effect arrest of the hoodlums and those who committed electoral offences. While all these illegal acts were being committed, the police in most places turned the blind eye or even assisted the perpetration of the illegal acts, the petitioners maintained.
A witness, Major-General Mohammed Saleh, the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 2 Mechanised Division, testified on 3 August. He told the Tribunal that suspects found in possession of dangerous weapons and electoral materials without any identity to prove they were INEC officials “were arrested and handed over to the Director of the State Security Service (SSS).”
A photographer who was also on the entourage of the GOC during which he took snapshots of electoral malpractices tendered them to the Justice Sidi Bage-led Tribunal. Although Alao-Akala’s counsel, Nathaniel Oke, argued that Saleh’s documents should not be accepted in evidence, the panel admitted them. Lawyers describe these testimonies and evidences as very damaging to Alao-Akala’s case, noting that they could ensure his loss at the tribunal. They explained that this was the reason why Alao-Akala’s lawyers tried unsuccessfully to get the tribunal to reject such potentially damaging evidence.
Another witness, Josiah Akande, a Labour Party agent, alleged that Alao-Akala personally led a team of thugs in a Peugeot 504 saloon car to disorganise voting at Unit 11, Sabo/Taara Ward in Ogbomoso South Local Government Area. The hoodlums allegedly carted off ballot boxes. “My Lord, at about 9.45 a.m. when voting was about to commence, the then Deputy Governor of the state, Adebayo Alao-Akala, came in an unnumbered 504 saloon car with thugs armed with dangerous weapons and carted away ballot papers and boxes from the polling centre,” Akande said.
Adewale Femi and Adegbola Adeniyi, two civil servants who were party agents in the same local government area, revealed to the panel that they could not sign the result sheets because Alao-Akala’s men drove them away. However, the Oyo State Director of SSS, Adebayo Babalola and the Police Commissioner, Mr. Udom Ekpondom, refused to appear before the panel.
As at the time of going to press, among the 12 witnesses that testified, only one (Personal Assistant to the Soun of Ogbomoso) testified in support of Alao-Akala.
How then will all these lead to Akala’s removal? Dr. Oyin Odebowale, a law lecturer at the University of Ibadan, told TheNEWS that on the point of law, evidence so far admitted is not conclusive. The admissibility of evidence is not a conclusion, he argued. What is attached to it, according to him, is the most important.
There are, as he explained, three petitions against the Oyo governor. One from Ayoade of NDP and the other two from Maurice Akande and Senator Ajumobi. The three have something in common (that the election was characterized by malpractices). Two, Alao-Akala’s the indictment is a public property and the major thing standing against him.
Ajumobi’s petition is, according to the university don, predicated on two grounds. One, the indictment, whether it is quashed or not. Alao-Akala, he argued, has no locus standi to have contested the election because as at the time of the election, he had not been cleared.
There is no judicial officer or legal practitioner or citizen that can overlook the indictment. “All of them are,” as the law lecturer explained, bound to take notice of the indictment and act appropriately. Based on the indictment, it is very easy to determine the attitude of the Tribunal. He concluded that Akande and Ayoade are asking for the nullification of the result while Ajumobi is asking the Tribunal to declare him governor-elect.
Is the Alao-Akala camp jittery over the possible outcome of the exhibits and testimonies at the Tribunal? Oyelade, in an interview with TheNEWS, said no, because all what is happening currently was expected. In his words, “You see, the manner of coercing the witnesses are all coming from a camp, that is the aggrieved camp.” Oyelade argued that when Alao-Akala’s counsel also call their own witnesses, “you will see how things will be completely neutralised.” He, therefore, urged the governor’s supporters not to be anxious about the current “one-way traffic” of evidences against his boss. “We will have our own days in court,” he assured.
Beyond the legal field, Governor Alao-Akala is facing another battle by proxy. This is with regard to the feud between his godfather, Adedibu and the new Olubadan, Oba Odulana. On 23 July, the then Olubadan designate barred 13 traditional high chiefs who make up the Olubadan-in-Council from participating in partisan politics. The new monarch wanted the chiefs to choose between their traditional task or politics and threatened to sanction any of them who flouted the new order, in line with laid-down Ibadan traditional laws.
Prince Oyedotun Oloyede, Chief Press Secretary to the new Oba, gave the offices of the affected chiefs as the Balogun, Otun Balogun, Osi Balogun, Eekerin Ashipa Balogun, the Ekarun Balogun and the Seriki. The Otun Olubadan, Osi Olubadan, Ashipa Olubadan, Ekerin Olubadan, Ekarun Olubadan and the Iyalode were also barred.
Among those affected were Governor Rashidi Ladoja, Chief Meredith Adisa Akinloye, Senator Lekan Balogun and Alhaji Adedibu. Of the lot, Adedibu’s case, was however, the most dramatic. Beyond the order barring them not to participate in politics, the Oba regarded Adedibu’s newly acquired rank as illegitimate because he was not involved, as stipulated by the ordinance. While Adedibu claims the rank of the Eekerin (the fourth in the line of the throne), the monarch said he (Adedibu) is actually the Eekarun (the fifth).
Never a man to say die, Adedibu threw his hat into the ring immediately he returned from a medical trip overseas. He reacted: “I maintain my stand. Whatever he might say about me and whatever he wishes to say about me, he is my Oba. I will never say anything contrary to what Olubadan has said. He is my father and I am one of his cabinet members.”
Adedibu waved off other people who were making comments as political learners. “They are mixing it up with politics and religion. By the will of God, here we are. The Speaker of the State House of Assembly is here; the deputy governor is here; the former deputy governor is also here. By the will of God, I am the controller of politics here. We don’t need to join issues with any other people. I have no other comment but to say glory be to God. The political power of this state is in my hands.”
This controversy seems to have gone beyond the two individuals. The Ibadan elite, immediately threw their weight behind Odulana. The Balogun, High Chief H.V.A. Olunloyo on behalf of the other chiefs, wrote a letter to the Oba, pledging their 100 per cent loyalty to him. Olunloyo, in the 14 July 2007 edition of Saturday Punch wrote: ‘‘Odulana was a politician who harboured no bitterness. He has a large heart and forgiving spirit. We have high hopes that when he ascends the throne, things will change for the better (and that) peace and tranquility will return to Ibadanland in particular and Oyo State in general.”
The hostility manifested further at the coronation ceremony. Chief Adedibu, who had promised to attend, stayed away. But the speech, read by his godson, Alao-Akala, was a subtle Adedibu reply, aimed at the Olubadan’s underbelly. The Governor admonished the monarch: “You are a father of all, irrespective of the political and religious affiliation of your subjects. As a father of all, you should watch your utterances in political matters. You have to shield yourself from partisan politics and stop making inflammatory statements. It is believed you have no enemies but seek reconciliation among those who have crossed your path.”
The speech was drowned in jeers from the angry crowd. That was in contrast to what happened when former Governor Rasheed Ladoja was ushered into the Mapo Hall venue when Most Reverend Joseph Akinfenwa, Archbishop of Ibadan Anglican Diocese, was giving the opening prayer. Ladoja’s entry was received by the people with wide applause.
Ladoja simply stole the show. As he mounted the platform, he prostrated for the new monarch, rose up and, like Julius Caeser after his defeat of Pompey, waved to the crowd that howled uncontrollably. But Prince Oyelade, Alao-Akala’s spokesman, waved the drama off as an Ibadan affair, which has no impact on the Governor’s popularity throughout Oyo State. Oyelade said that the state has many big towns like Ogbomoso, Lanlate, Iseyin, Oyo and Igbeti.
Oyelade reasoned, therefore, that it would be “politically inaccurate to gauge what is happening in Ibadan with what is actually the situation in Oyo State.” He added that Ladoja was a proud son of Ibadan who attended an Ibadan affair, populated 100 per cent by Ibadan people. “Surely, he should be hailed,” Oyelade reasoned.
On why he stayed away, Adedibu said that it had nothing to do with the Oba’s stay-off politics pronouncement. He said that having been away overseas for three Fridays running, the coronation clashed with the day he always attends to the needs of the less privileged. He added that he did not attend because he would not want another clash between his supporters and Ladoja’s.
Adedibu’s spokesman, Taofeek Olayiwola, reasoned: “You know that Ladoja was there with his supporters and if Papa went there, he would go with his own supporters which may trigger another bloody clash. So, as a peace-loving man, he decided to stay back.’’
In spite of all these, Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala enjoys support and admiration in some quarters. According to Alhaji Isiaka Adio Ayeneyin, former president of Owode Youth Progressive Development Association (OYPDA) in Ogbomoso, “Alao-Akala is our real choice. Right from the inception of this democracy, he has been involved in nation building. Even before then he had committed himself entirely to community development. And that was why he won the local government chairmanship of Ogbomoso as a member of the All People’s Party, even though the Alliance for Democracy, as it were then, was very popular here.”
Yet, there are those who will readily disagree with Ayeneyin. Deacon Josiah Adebowale, an elder of Moboluwaduro Baptist Church in Agbowo, Ogbomoso, is chief among them. According to the clergyman, “it is true that Governor Alao-Akala is quite popular among his people. But that again is another moral question. We all know that he didn’t win the governorship election. He was literally installed by Chief Adedibu, his mentor and godfather. And for you to ride on the back of the likes of Adedibu tells the kind of person you are.”
Adebowale stressed that there is hardly a day in Ibadan without a politically-motivated violence. “Doesn’t that show a sign that he is not wanted? If truly you are a man of the people, do you need motor park touts to intimidate your striking workers? When you consider all these questions, you’ll then wonder why you’d still find people, hungry and misled people, preaching Alao-Akala to you,” he concluded Can Akala survive the forces ranged against him? Nigerians, especially a sizeable portion of the political class which consider Alao-Akala an avoidable nuisance, are waiting to see his back.
Additional reports by Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan and Olusola Olaosebikan/Ogbomosho.
Of all the problems Alao-Akala faces currently, the most potentially destructive is the manner of his exit from the Nigeria Police Force. Alao-Akala exited the Nigeria Police in less than glorious circumstances, something that his critics describe as a huge moral burden to himself and a veritable embarrassment to the political class in general.
The Oyo State helmsman is also entangled in a legal web over the legitimacy of his governorship. The excrement of this matter hit the fan in May 2007 when the National Democratic Party (NDP) wrote a petition, giving reasons why Alao-Akala should not be sworn in on the 29th of that month. According to Dr. Toriola Oyewo, counsel to the NDP governorship candidate, Mr. Ademola Ayonde, Alao-Akala was compulsorily retired from the police vide a letter with reference number PSA/S/3/149 of 7 September 1995, which emanated from the Secretary of the Nigeria Police Council.
The petitioners quoted letters, dated 23 and 26 of that month, written by Alao-Akala, through which he tried unsuccessfully to have his compulsory retirement reviewed. “More often than not,” the writers argued, “officers found guilty of corruption, dishonesty, embezzlement, fraud are normally dismissed from service.” They added that such erring officers are sometimes compulsorily retired as a face-saving measure.
Ayoade and Oyewo maintained that before his exit from the police, he did not bear the name Alao-Akala, but Christopher Adebayo Alao and insinuating that he (Alao-Akala) had something to hide by changing his name.
But the governor’s spokesman, Prince Dotun Oyelade, argued that his boss came from a reputable family in Ogbomoso and that his forebears were known as Akala, a name which stuck to him when he was Chairman of Ogbomoso South Local Government.
Meanwhile, Saharareporters, an internet-based investigative unit, has exhumed Alao-Akala’s hidden cadaver. It quoted from the 7 September 1995 letter signed by J.A. Obe (mni), the Secretary of the Nigeria Police Service Council: “In view of the serious act of misconduct against you from which you have not exonerated yourself, the Head of State and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces, after due consultation and deliberation, and as the appropriate authority in this regard, and in accordance with the provisions of the Public Officers (Special Provision) Decree No. 17 of 1984, has decided to compulsorily retire you in public interest.”
That Alao-Akala was not dismissed was, according to TheNEWS findings, the handiwork of his boss and fellow Ogbomoso man, former Inspector-General of Police, Sunday Adewusi. He also made an effort to escape compulsory retirement by approaching Chief Afe Babalola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, to beg the then Head of State, General Sani Abacha to have mercy on him. The legal practitioner’s intercession, through a letter to Abacha, who probably was not given the correct picture of the matter, did not succeed.
Among his major assignments, Alao-Akala, as this magazine gathered, was Divisional Police Officer at Agodi (a station that, as at 1995, gained some notoriety as a detention centre for financial scammers) and Iponri. He was also, at a time, Adewusi’s Personal Assistant.
With regard to this, the Action Congress (AC), through its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, asked Alao-Akala to resign. AC said it is a crying shame for the law enforcement agencies and INEC that it took a non-governmental organization, Campaign for Integrity (CI), to unearth a 12-year-old public document that is critical to Alao-Akala’s qualification to contest election in the first place.
The party added that Alao-Akala “swore to an oath in his INEC form that he had never been indicted by any administrative panel. Therefore, with the revelation that he was actually indicted and compulsorily retired from the force, he has lost every reason to remain in office,” Alhaji Mohammed quoted the NGO as saying. He added that the governor affixed “Akala” to his name to cover up his past misdeeds.
Oyelade, however, dismissed the allegation as the handiwork of Akala’s detractors whom he advised to seek redress at the Election Petitions Tribunal.
Even so, the Tribunal is not a sanctuary for Alao-Akala who has become the butt of more damning allegations that may see his victory in the governorship election being upturned.
Now Alao-Akala is facing the heat at the election petitions tribunal sitting over the April 2007 governorship poll in Oyo State. The Tribunal, on 9 August 2007, granted an order to the Republican Party of Nigeria (RPN) governorship candidate in the last gubernatorial election, Alhaji Mueez Akande, to tender in evidence, the judgment of an Oyo State High Court that knocked out Alao-Akala’s applications challenging the Administrative Panel that indicted him. Akande is one of those seeking to see the back of Alao-Akala from Agodi Government House. Others are Senator Abiola Ajimobi of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and Demola Ayoade of the Democratic Party of Nigeria (DPN).
When the tribunal sat on 8 August 2007, Toriola, Ayoade’s counsel, filed a motion before the tribunal to tender at the hearings, the verdicts of the state High Court with number M/255/2007 and M/249/2007 and a notice of appeal on the quashing of the indictment by Justice Afolabi Adeniran, the acting Chief Judge.
Oyewo’s argument was that the documents would prove the incompetence “and jurisdictional deficiency of (Adeniran) in adjudicating over the same matter that had earlier been determined by a court of coordinate jurisdiction.” The documents were the separate judgments of Justice Gboyega Gbolagunte of the state High Court which shredded Alao-Akala’s two applications praying for the quashing of his indictment, and a notice of appeal against Adeniran’s verdict which dismissed the Governor’s indictment.
Although lawyers refused to be directly named in the matter, one of them explained to TheNEWS the background. Alao-Akala, according to him, governed the state for 11 months but stayed away from the panel. But when he was sworn in as Governor on 29 May, he acted in a jiffy. He elbowed aside Justice John Ige, the former acting Chief Judge and appointed Justice Adeniran who, with the ease with which hot knife slashes through butter, quashed the indictment on 6 June.
Three days before that, however, Justice Gbolagunte who heard the case, refused to make it null and void because an Osogbo High Court “where similar case was instituted has not allowed its withdrawal”.
This development has created a triangular conflict among members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Justice Adeniran and Alao-Akala himself.
First, critics say Alao-Akala installed Adeniran (who has now retired) to do a dirty job for him after he (the governor) removed the former CJ, Justice John Ige, who refused to play ball.
Two days before Adeniran’s judgment, Barristers A. A. Shittu and S.A. Ali wrote a petition to the Chief Justice of the Federation. In their words: “Nigerians should recall that the acting Chief Judge of Oyo State, during the foregoing scenario was Hon. Justice John Ige, who was barely two months in office as acting Chief Judge.” They added that because he refused to be used to engage in judicial rascality and illegality in the hands of Adebayo Alao-Akala, he was unceremoniously and unconstitutionally removed from his post. The natural beneficiary of this mischief, according to them, was, not surprisingly, Justice Afolabi Adeniran, the former but discredited acting Chief Judge who facilitated the illegal impeachment of erstwhile Governor Rashidi Ladoja.
Unfortunately for Oyo State, the lawyers lamented, Adeniran “remains a judge of Oyo State Judiciary, despite his past dishonourable role in the impeachment saga. To start with, Justice Afolabi Adeniran is not only a townsman of Otunba Alao-Akala but, indeed, his cousin who has agreed to be recruited to facilitate the quashing of the said indictment through reassigning of a relevant case file to himself for hearing and determination”.
After Adeniran confirmed their worst fears, the two lawyers fired another petition, dated 11 June 2007, raising many allegations against the Chief Judge.
They argued that Justice Adeniran refused to join both the chairman and members of the Administrative Panel of Enquiry and erstwhile Governor Rashidi Ladoja as interested parties to the suit. Moreover, the judge refused to disqualify himself as prayed for, despite the discreet initiation and commencement of the case, and the evidences of “allegation of corruption levelled against him.”
The lawyers added that by rushing the case from filing in his chambers up to final judgment all within 24 hours, the maximum period, the judge prevented the case from being heard and determined on its merit, “moreso that the Applicants and the Respondents are all one and the same”.
The lawyers argued further that Justice Afolabi Adeniran agreed to be reappointed as acting Chief Judge in questionable circumstances, without due regard for the law, and for the sole purpose of his assigning Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala’s case to himself, so that he could assist the former to annul his previous indictment which is the subject-matter of many other court cases.
In view of the foregoing, the lawyers wrote, “we humbly urge the National Judicial Council to investigate and sanction Justice Adeniran for his destructive role in this all-important and sensitive judicial exercise.”
Other aspects of the war at the tribunal are the contents of the report of the administrative panel, being investigated by EFCC. The body indicted Alao-Akala for his role in a N753 million contract scam and recommended that Alao-Akala and the then chairman of the state Education Board, Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, should be barred from holding public office.
The contracts, among others, were for the procurement of a 1,000 KVA generator, supply of text books and ambulances, computerisation of civil servants’ quarters and supply of 360,000 bags of rice.
Meanwhile, at the tribunal, proof of electoral malpractices by Alao-Akala’s agents were provided, a development that his supporters fear might lead to the nullification of his electoral victory.
In their petition to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the forum of Oyo State Governorship Candidates, comprising Ayoade, Akinboade and Akande, protested malpractices perpetrated by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
In the whole of Oyo North and parts of Oyo Central and South senatorial districts, the logo, party name and photograph of the DPA gubernatorial candidate was, according to them, omitted from the ballot paper and the logo of the DPN was incorrect, thereby disenfranchising the candidates and the electorate.
The election was in their words marred by widespread electoral malpractices, monumental irregularities and violation of electoral processes in favour of the PDP, especially in Lagelu, Ogbomoso North, Ogbomoso South, Orire, Ogo-Oluwa, Surulere and Iseyin Local Government areas. “The confidence the participants earlier had by participating in the said gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections had been eroded by the results declared by your Commission,” they declared. They maintained that in those areas elections were characterised by violence, sporadic shooting, seizure of several ballot boxes containing votes already cast and taken to unknown destinations by thugs in connivance with agents of PDP and, in some cases, policemen and INEC staff.
The governorship candidates revealed that some policemen were arrested by soldiers, openly thumb-printing ballot papers in booklets in favour of the PDP. In some places, innocent voters and agents of parties other than those of PDP were openly intimidated by thugs comprising mainly the Alhaji Akinsola Lateef (Tokyo)-led faction of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW). The election was also characterized by non-appearance of electoral personnel at polling units, and manipulation of election results by INEC officials. Ayoade and his colleagues argued further that many of the above irregularities were witnessed and captured by pressmen on camera, observers and members of the Armed Forces that were later called into the areas to forestall breakdown of law and order. Indeed, armed forces personnel arrested 260 people, majority of whom were PDP faithful. The number of arrested people would have been more had soldiers been authorised earlier to effect arrest of the hoodlums and those who committed electoral offences. While all these illegal acts were being committed, the police in most places turned the blind eye or even assisted the perpetration of the illegal acts, the petitioners maintained.
A witness, Major-General Mohammed Saleh, the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 2 Mechanised Division, testified on 3 August. He told the Tribunal that suspects found in possession of dangerous weapons and electoral materials without any identity to prove they were INEC officials “were arrested and handed over to the Director of the State Security Service (SSS).”
A photographer who was also on the entourage of the GOC during which he took snapshots of electoral malpractices tendered them to the Justice Sidi Bage-led Tribunal. Although Alao-Akala’s counsel, Nathaniel Oke, argued that Saleh’s documents should not be accepted in evidence, the panel admitted them. Lawyers describe these testimonies and evidences as very damaging to Alao-Akala’s case, noting that they could ensure his loss at the tribunal. They explained that this was the reason why Alao-Akala’s lawyers tried unsuccessfully to get the tribunal to reject such potentially damaging evidence.
Another witness, Josiah Akande, a Labour Party agent, alleged that Alao-Akala personally led a team of thugs in a Peugeot 504 saloon car to disorganise voting at Unit 11, Sabo/Taara Ward in Ogbomoso South Local Government Area. The hoodlums allegedly carted off ballot boxes. “My Lord, at about 9.45 a.m. when voting was about to commence, the then Deputy Governor of the state, Adebayo Alao-Akala, came in an unnumbered 504 saloon car with thugs armed with dangerous weapons and carted away ballot papers and boxes from the polling centre,” Akande said.
Adewale Femi and Adegbola Adeniyi, two civil servants who were party agents in the same local government area, revealed to the panel that they could not sign the result sheets because Alao-Akala’s men drove them away. However, the Oyo State Director of SSS, Adebayo Babalola and the Police Commissioner, Mr. Udom Ekpondom, refused to appear before the panel.
As at the time of going to press, among the 12 witnesses that testified, only one (Personal Assistant to the Soun of Ogbomoso) testified in support of Alao-Akala.
How then will all these lead to Akala’s removal? Dr. Oyin Odebowale, a law lecturer at the University of Ibadan, told TheNEWS that on the point of law, evidence so far admitted is not conclusive. The admissibility of evidence is not a conclusion, he argued. What is attached to it, according to him, is the most important.
There are, as he explained, three petitions against the Oyo governor. One from Ayoade of NDP and the other two from Maurice Akande and Senator Ajumobi. The three have something in common (that the election was characterized by malpractices). Two, Alao-Akala’s the indictment is a public property and the major thing standing against him.
Ajumobi’s petition is, according to the university don, predicated on two grounds. One, the indictment, whether it is quashed or not. Alao-Akala, he argued, has no locus standi to have contested the election because as at the time of the election, he had not been cleared.
There is no judicial officer or legal practitioner or citizen that can overlook the indictment. “All of them are,” as the law lecturer explained, bound to take notice of the indictment and act appropriately. Based on the indictment, it is very easy to determine the attitude of the Tribunal. He concluded that Akande and Ayoade are asking for the nullification of the result while Ajumobi is asking the Tribunal to declare him governor-elect.
Is the Alao-Akala camp jittery over the possible outcome of the exhibits and testimonies at the Tribunal? Oyelade, in an interview with TheNEWS, said no, because all what is happening currently was expected. In his words, “You see, the manner of coercing the witnesses are all coming from a camp, that is the aggrieved camp.” Oyelade argued that when Alao-Akala’s counsel also call their own witnesses, “you will see how things will be completely neutralised.” He, therefore, urged the governor’s supporters not to be anxious about the current “one-way traffic” of evidences against his boss. “We will have our own days in court,” he assured.
Beyond the legal field, Governor Alao-Akala is facing another battle by proxy. This is with regard to the feud between his godfather, Adedibu and the new Olubadan, Oba Odulana. On 23 July, the then Olubadan designate barred 13 traditional high chiefs who make up the Olubadan-in-Council from participating in partisan politics. The new monarch wanted the chiefs to choose between their traditional task or politics and threatened to sanction any of them who flouted the new order, in line with laid-down Ibadan traditional laws.
Prince Oyedotun Oloyede, Chief Press Secretary to the new Oba, gave the offices of the affected chiefs as the Balogun, Otun Balogun, Osi Balogun, Eekerin Ashipa Balogun, the Ekarun Balogun and the Seriki. The Otun Olubadan, Osi Olubadan, Ashipa Olubadan, Ekerin Olubadan, Ekarun Olubadan and the Iyalode were also barred.
Among those affected were Governor Rashidi Ladoja, Chief Meredith Adisa Akinloye, Senator Lekan Balogun and Alhaji Adedibu. Of the lot, Adedibu’s case, was however, the most dramatic. Beyond the order barring them not to participate in politics, the Oba regarded Adedibu’s newly acquired rank as illegitimate because he was not involved, as stipulated by the ordinance. While Adedibu claims the rank of the Eekerin (the fourth in the line of the throne), the monarch said he (Adedibu) is actually the Eekarun (the fifth).
Never a man to say die, Adedibu threw his hat into the ring immediately he returned from a medical trip overseas. He reacted: “I maintain my stand. Whatever he might say about me and whatever he wishes to say about me, he is my Oba. I will never say anything contrary to what Olubadan has said. He is my father and I am one of his cabinet members.”
Adedibu waved off other people who were making comments as political learners. “They are mixing it up with politics and religion. By the will of God, here we are. The Speaker of the State House of Assembly is here; the deputy governor is here; the former deputy governor is also here. By the will of God, I am the controller of politics here. We don’t need to join issues with any other people. I have no other comment but to say glory be to God. The political power of this state is in my hands.”
This controversy seems to have gone beyond the two individuals. The Ibadan elite, immediately threw their weight behind Odulana. The Balogun, High Chief H.V.A. Olunloyo on behalf of the other chiefs, wrote a letter to the Oba, pledging their 100 per cent loyalty to him. Olunloyo, in the 14 July 2007 edition of Saturday Punch wrote: ‘‘Odulana was a politician who harboured no bitterness. He has a large heart and forgiving spirit. We have high hopes that when he ascends the throne, things will change for the better (and that) peace and tranquility will return to Ibadanland in particular and Oyo State in general.”
The hostility manifested further at the coronation ceremony. Chief Adedibu, who had promised to attend, stayed away. But the speech, read by his godson, Alao-Akala, was a subtle Adedibu reply, aimed at the Olubadan’s underbelly. The Governor admonished the monarch: “You are a father of all, irrespective of the political and religious affiliation of your subjects. As a father of all, you should watch your utterances in political matters. You have to shield yourself from partisan politics and stop making inflammatory statements. It is believed you have no enemies but seek reconciliation among those who have crossed your path.”
The speech was drowned in jeers from the angry crowd. That was in contrast to what happened when former Governor Rasheed Ladoja was ushered into the Mapo Hall venue when Most Reverend Joseph Akinfenwa, Archbishop of Ibadan Anglican Diocese, was giving the opening prayer. Ladoja’s entry was received by the people with wide applause.
Ladoja simply stole the show. As he mounted the platform, he prostrated for the new monarch, rose up and, like Julius Caeser after his defeat of Pompey, waved to the crowd that howled uncontrollably. But Prince Oyelade, Alao-Akala’s spokesman, waved the drama off as an Ibadan affair, which has no impact on the Governor’s popularity throughout Oyo State. Oyelade said that the state has many big towns like Ogbomoso, Lanlate, Iseyin, Oyo and Igbeti.
Oyelade reasoned, therefore, that it would be “politically inaccurate to gauge what is happening in Ibadan with what is actually the situation in Oyo State.” He added that Ladoja was a proud son of Ibadan who attended an Ibadan affair, populated 100 per cent by Ibadan people. “Surely, he should be hailed,” Oyelade reasoned.
On why he stayed away, Adedibu said that it had nothing to do with the Oba’s stay-off politics pronouncement. He said that having been away overseas for three Fridays running, the coronation clashed with the day he always attends to the needs of the less privileged. He added that he did not attend because he would not want another clash between his supporters and Ladoja’s.
Adedibu’s spokesman, Taofeek Olayiwola, reasoned: “You know that Ladoja was there with his supporters and if Papa went there, he would go with his own supporters which may trigger another bloody clash. So, as a peace-loving man, he decided to stay back.’’
In spite of all these, Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala enjoys support and admiration in some quarters. According to Alhaji Isiaka Adio Ayeneyin, former president of Owode Youth Progressive Development Association (OYPDA) in Ogbomoso, “Alao-Akala is our real choice. Right from the inception of this democracy, he has been involved in nation building. Even before then he had committed himself entirely to community development. And that was why he won the local government chairmanship of Ogbomoso as a member of the All People’s Party, even though the Alliance for Democracy, as it were then, was very popular here.”
Yet, there are those who will readily disagree with Ayeneyin. Deacon Josiah Adebowale, an elder of Moboluwaduro Baptist Church in Agbowo, Ogbomoso, is chief among them. According to the clergyman, “it is true that Governor Alao-Akala is quite popular among his people. But that again is another moral question. We all know that he didn’t win the governorship election. He was literally installed by Chief Adedibu, his mentor and godfather. And for you to ride on the back of the likes of Adedibu tells the kind of person you are.”
Adebowale stressed that there is hardly a day in Ibadan without a politically-motivated violence. “Doesn’t that show a sign that he is not wanted? If truly you are a man of the people, do you need motor park touts to intimidate your striking workers? When you consider all these questions, you’ll then wonder why you’d still find people, hungry and misled people, preaching Alao-Akala to you,” he concluded Can Akala survive the forces ranged against him? Nigerians, especially a sizeable portion of the political class which consider Alao-Akala an avoidable nuisance, are waiting to see his back.
Additional reports by Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan and Olusola Olaosebikan/Ogbomosho.
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