You be thief, I no be thief; you be armed robber, I no be armed robber…’ This evergreen satirical lyric from one of the music albums of the late Afro music legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, aptly encapsulates the recent exchange of diatribes between Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State and one of his predecessors, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, over the refund of a contentious N500m allegedly looted from the state’s treasury.
Ladoja is a politician well ingrained in the late Lamidi Adedibu’s political school of thought, having secured the Peoples Democratic Party’s ticket for the 2003 governorship election through the old rascal’s magic wand.
Chief among what the followers of the deceased nemesis of Oyo State politics have in common is to paper over the cracks and unabashedly swear with the Holy books to justify their position. One is, therefore, not taken aback by the insistence of Ladoja that he knew nothing about the reported malfeasance, for which he was the guest of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a number of occasions in 2008. This is in the public domain. Not even a written confession of one of Ladoja’s personal aides and two brokerage firms used to covetously corner about N2bn from the sale of shares of Oyo State in some blue chip companies, will move the ex-governor into changing his stoic position.
But, the Ladoja aide had claimed that on Ladoja’s instruction, he spent the former governor’s share of the graft to purchase exotic vehicles and Government Quarters for him, with his boss maintaining his innocence. No doubt, Ladoja, who is the Accord Party’s Oyo State candidate for the April 11 governorship election, may have capitalized on the short memory and inability of Nigerians to hold politicians accountable for their deeds and misdeeds of the past.
Sadly, a school of thought suggests that it will be difficult to adjudge whose government was more involved in corruption-related scandals between Ladoja and his successor, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, upon which the EFCC temporarily made Oyo an abode in 2008. Incidentally, Akala is the state’s Labour Party’s candidate for the forthcoming governorship election. At a point, the two ex-governors engaged each other in a battle of wits.
In a classic case of a pot calling kettle black, it was Ladoja that fired the first salvo when he reported the excesses of Akala to the EFCC shortly after wresting power from his former deputy in December 2006. Ladoja unwittingly stirred up the hornet’s nest by setting up an administrative panel, which indicted Akala of corruption shortly before the 2007 general election.
As it later played out, Akala paid his former boss back in his own coin. Shortly after his pyrrhic victory in the 2007 governorship election, he pored through the books only to discover that Ladoja’s administration was clever by half judging by the manner it hurriedly sold the shares held by the state in some companies at the twilight of his administration.
For starters, a section of Ladoja’s autobiography on Wikipedia (a reference website with global acclaim since 2001) titled ‘Later career,’ is instructive: ”On 28 August 2008, Ladoja was arrested by the EFCC over allegations of non-remittance of the proceeds of sale of government shares totaling N1.9bn during his administration. He was briefly remanded in prison by the Federal High Court in Lagos 30 August 2008. He was granted bail on 5 September in the amount of N100 million with two sureties for the same sum. In March 2009, a former aide (Adewale Atanda) testified on the way on which the share money had been divided between Ladoja’s family, bodyguard, senior politicians and lawyers.”
On September 4, 2008, the EFCC said that the confession of Atanda, and other principal actors in the scam led to the recovery of N500m and a bullet-proof sport utility vehicle valued at N42m from them. Some 600,000 pounds sterling was said to have also been laundered through one of the women in Ladoja’s harem. He is today facing a N4.7bn money laundering and corruption charges, following a February 14, 2014 judgment by the Court of Appeal dismissing his prayer to be left off the hook.
Until recently when he revived his ambition for the Office of the Governor, Ladoja did not deny all these revelations nor choose to square up with the EFCC for ‘libeling’ him. For indubitable political reasons, Ajimobi had recently, at different fora, refreshed the memory of the people of the state on how Ladoja and his gang refunded N500m to the coffers of the state in 2008. Curiously, but unexpectedly, Ladoja is still insisting that no such thing happened, regardless of unimpeachable publications in the public domain suggesting that he might have indeed soiled his hands.
The alleged financial recklessness that tainted the public records of Ladoja is also trailing Akala, his successor. Since July 14, 2008 when the Punch newspaper blew the lid off EFCC’s inquiry into Akala’s alleged fiscal indiscipline, till October 7, 2011 when the agency’s operatives arrested and arraigned the ex-governor, newspapers were awash with his mind-boggling alleged penchant for public fund. The publication with a banner headline, ‘How Alao-Akala looted N1bn in 11 months – EFCC,’ exposed how the former governor allegedly used two publishing firms and another company to fleece the state of over N1bn. This was between January 12 and December 7, 2006 when Akala supplanted his former boss, Ladoja, following a phantom impeachment.
In its July 18, 2008 cover publication, the Punch newspaper again exposed findings by the EFCC on how Akala allegedly routinely inflated contracts “with a view to enriching himself” during his first 11-month spell as governor. The damning publication exposed how two pliable publishing firms became a conduit through which over N1bn was siphoned from the treasury of the state. To underscore their level of complicity in the shady deal, both publishing houses were made to cough out N22m, which invariably was their share in the illicit deal.
The EFCC report also identified shady deals in a multi-million contract awarded by the Akala regime for the computerization of the state’s personnel payroll and production of staff identity cards. The agency said it indicted the ex-governor for abusing his office by “enriching himself contrary to his oath of office” and for betrayal of public trust.
On the strength of the above, the EFCC arrested and arraigned Akala on October 12, 2011 upon a N11.5bn corruption charges. And on April 16, 2014 the Court of Appeal dismissed his suit seeking an order for the stoppage of his trial. As it stands now Akala and Ladoja have corruption charges hanging around their necks like an albatross.
Granted that in the face of the law, an accused is presumed innocent until proved guilty by the court, one would have expected the two former governors to first clear themselves of these corruption-related charges before seeking to rule the state again. But, this is Nigeria where anything goes. Politicians are wont to take the people for granted because of the inability to properly scrutinize their credentials.
It behoves the electorate in Oyo State to put the candidates jostling to rule them from May 29 on a scale of performance and antecedents and decide whether it will serve their interest better to put their destiny in the hands of gourmands that will fritter the people’s patrimony or those with clean records. It has been proved that it will be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a leopard to change its spot. The choice we make today will determine our fortunes tomorrow.
•Akinkunle is a lawyer and human rights activist.