By Williams Anuku, Abuja
Rashidi Ladoja, a former governor of Oyo State, on Friday, has described the statement credited to former President Olusegun Obasanjo absolving himself from his impeachment as a ploy to rewrite the history.
Ladoja said no amount of damage control measure can wash him (Obasanjo) clean of his alleged involvement in his (Ladoja’s) impeachment in 2005.
Obasanjo, while chairing the launch of an autobiography of another former Governor of Oyo State, Adebayo Alao-Akala in Ibadan, on Thursday, said Ladoja’s inability to manage the late Chief Lamidi Adedibu and Chief Yekini Adeojo was responsible for his impeachment.
Ladoja was impeached as the Oyo State governor in 2005, leaving his deputy, Alao-Akala, to take over as governor, until he was reinstated by Supreme Court, after 11 months out of government.
While reacting through his media aide, Lanre Latinwo, Ladoja in a statement, said Obasanjo’s comment was an absolute disregard for the truth.
According to the statement, “The former president has forgotten that the nation’s apex court had ruled that there was no impeachment.
“Obasanjo can be forgiven because he is an old man who may not recollect the past accurately. If not, why should he say that Ladoja became governor in 2003 through the grace of God, Chief Adedibu and Alhaji Adeojo when Adeojo also attempted to become governor?
“Did Obasanjo forget that Adeojo contested the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary election which was held on December 24, 2002, at the Liberty Stadium, Ibadan?
“Let Chief Obasanjo be told, point-blank, that no amount of damage control would help him.
“Ladoja, therefore, has no regrets. He came to serve and he did just that to the best of his ability, the result of which is the love his people have for him till date,” Latinwo said.
