Akin Oyedele, Ademola Oni and Semiu Okanlawon

Sources told our correspondents on Tuesday that the meeting, which would also be attended by three other unnamed stalwarts of the PDP in Abuja, could offer a lifeline to Ladoja.

The news of the meeting in Abuja is coming after Ladoja announced at an interdenominational service in Ibadan on Tuesday, that he had finally survived the plot by some state legislators to remove him from office.

Also on Tuesday in Ibadan, a high court restrained the acting Chief Judge, Justice Afolabi Adeniran, from constituting the panel that was to investigate the charges of gross misconduct against the governor.

The case instituted by three lawmakers – Hassan Ogundoke, Babatunde Olaniyan and Jacob Ojekunle – seeking an order of perpetual injunction restraining Adeniran from acting on the letter written by 18 pro-Adedibu legislators was on Tuesday argued at an Ibadan High Court.

The three members were also seeking a declaration that the 18 legislators did not constitute the mandatory two-third majority of the 32-member House.

The group of 18 had during its sitting at a hotel in Ibadan (D’Rovans) on December 13 claimed to have suspended seven members of the rival group of legislators, including the Speaker, Mr. Adeola Adeleke, to leave the House with 25 members.

After preliminary arguments by counsel to both parties, the presiding judge, Justice Bolaji Yusuf, adjourned the suit to January 13.

Respite for Ladoja came after two separate groups of elders from Oyo State visited Obasanjo in his Ota Farm before and after Christmas, followed by two feverish visits by Ladoja on New Year day and the day after.

Obasanjo has been particularly irked by accusations of partiality in the crisis.

He has brushed aside charges that the governor’s leading foe, Chief Lamidi Adedibu, had instigated the latest round of crisis on frivolous grounds.

Sources said that the Tuesday night meeting in Abuja might use the report of the PDP fact-finding committee, headed by the Deputy National Chairman (North), Alhaji Ibrahim Shema, to broker peace.

Said one source, “The main reason why Obasanjo and the party chieftains are meeting is to use the committee report to provide a kind of face-saving platform for all those who are involved.

“From what the (fact-finding) committee has found so far, it’s obvious now that the pro-Adedibu lawmakers are on weak grounds. But the President’s ego (and that of some top party people) is involved; there’ll have to be some sort of soft-landing. That’s what the Tuesday meeting is about.”

Early on Tuesday, Ladoja, at an interdenominational service organised by his government to mark the New Year, in Ibadan, said that those calling for a state of emergency in the state had failed.

He therefore called on indigenes of the state to give peace a chance in 2006.

Describing 2005 as “a traumatic one for the state and the nation,” the governor reminded the people that it was only in an atmosphere of peace that development could take place.

Recounting the disasters witnessed last year, Ladoja said it was unfortunate that what happened in the defunct Western Region House of Assembly in 1963 was replicated in the state towards the end of the year.

The governor said he was glad to realise that the support of the people for his administration had not waned.

He emphasised that it was traditional for Yoruba kings to relinquish their throne when the people turned against them, but said the reverse was the case in the state as “the people still love their governor.”

Ladoja reminded the members of the state House of Assembly seeking his removal that, “The mandate we are holding is not the mandate for one person, but for everybody that voted for us, whose interest we ought to be protecting.”

He added, “I am glad to see the people who were apolitical for the first time rising to defend democracy. It shows that we are ready to pay the price to safeguard that democracy.

“The essence of democracy is disagreement in order to agree. We put our own side of the case forward and submit to stronger argument, where there is a superior view.”

Ladoja added that Obasanjo deserved a pat on the back for his troubleshooting efforts.

The governor, however, regretted that, “what is happening in Oyo State can be likened to somebody who is good outside but not good at home.”

He promised to continue to serve the people, vowing not to stay a day longer when his services were no longer required by the people.

In a sermon at the occasion, a Muslim cleric, Alhaji Nurudeen Azeez, called on workers to remain loyal to the state government and to be committed to their defence of democracy.

Also, the General Overseer, Bible-based Church, Pastor Joel Iyiola, urged workers to mind their utterances.

Iyiola whose message centred on “Mind your tongue,” said the tongue was a “dangerous weapon of warfare.”

He advised Ladoja not to react angrily to issues since by his position he was the father of all residents of the state.

Present at the service were the state’s Deputy Governor, Mr. Alao Akala; the Speaker of the House; the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Ayodele Adigun; the Acting General Officer Commanding, 2 Mechanised Division, Nigerian Army, Brig-Gen. U. S. Essien.

Also in attendance were the Deputy Commissioner of Police at the state command, Mr. Jonathan Johnson; and the factional Chairman of the PDP in the state, Chief Jacob Adetoro.

Meanwhile, the Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Mr. Adeolu Adeleke, on Tuesday claimed that the impeachment process against Ladoja was carried out by suspected party loyalists masquerading as members of the House of Assembly.

He described the resolution passed by the 18 members of the House loyal to Adedibu, on December 22 as “fake and unconstitutional.”

To buttress his point, Adeleke at the news conference showed a video clip where the unidentified party loyalists were seen at the Assembly chambers mimicking the proceedings of the House.

The arrowhead of the pro-Adedibu group and Chairman, House Committee on Information, Mr. Babatunde Eesuola, however, described the video show as a “charade and a fraud meant to deceive the public.”

Reacting to the allegation in a telephone interview with our correspondents, he insisted that the 18 lawmakers sat at the Assembly complex on the day in question, and would not know what transpired after they departed the chamber.

The PUNCH, Wednesday, January 04, 2006