New revelations have been made as the trial of a former Oyo State governor continues in court over allegations of fraud.
Rasheed Ladoja
Adewale Atanda, a prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of former Oyo State Governor, Rasheed Ladoja, has narrated how the former governor bribed lawmakers with 22 cars to avoid impeachment in 2005.
Atanda, a former Senior Special Executive Assistant to Ladoja, on Thursday told a Lagos Federal High Court that out of the 22 cars Ladoja procured, only 14 given was out because that was the number of lawmakers whose loyalty was secured, out of the 22 needed to stop the impeachment process.
The former governor is currently standing trial before the Justice Mohammed Idris-led court for charges bordering on an alleged N4.7bn fraud.
Led in evidence by counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Oluwafemi Olabisi, the former Senior Special Executive Assistant disclosed that Ladoja purchased 22 cars because the Oyo State House of Assembly is made up of 32 lawmakers and for him to stop his impeachment he needed the votes of 22 lawmakers
According to Atanda, “Well, I don’t know exactly how it started but it appeared as if there was a rift between members of the Oyo State House of Assembly on one hand, some political actors in the state, like Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu (late) and Senator Ladoja, and some other external influences from Abuja at the material time.
“Very many attempts were made to remove Senator Ladoja from office; various petitions were written and at the end of the day, an impeachment process was set in motion.
“Oyo State has about 32 members of the House of Assembly and to successfully impeach the governor, it would require two-thirds majority support of the members of the House of Assembly. That will be about 22 members.
“In order to secure the loyalty of these 22 members of the House certain promises were made by different political actors. One of such was that loyal members would be given vehicles.
“In the course of all these, I had discussion with Senator Ladoja and explained to him that it was important that these promises be kept. At the material time, it was rather impossible to buy these vehicles because they were not included in the budget for the year, so, we started looking for alternative ways to accommodate the request,” Atanda said.
Explaining how funds was raised for the procurement of the cars, the witness informed the court that he had obtained a loan of N80m from Wema Bank with his personal assets to assist the former governor.
“The vehicles were bought and collected from the various dealers by the drivers of the Oyo State Government and delivered to the Government House in Ibadan. In spite of this, I think, by December 2005, the governor was impeached from office.”
After listening to Atanda’s narrative, Justice Idris adjourned the trial to March 27, 2017 for continuation of his testimony.
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The post How Ex-Oyo Governor, Ladoja Bribed Lawmakers to Avoid Impeachment – Witness Unveils Shocking Details appeared first on GL Trends.