Ajimobi warns Ladoja over violence threat, as Alaafin leads Obas to congratulate him
The Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, has warned that his administration would not tolerate any form of violence from any politician who lost in the last election in the state.
He gave the warning today (Wednesday) in Ibadan while briefing the press on the reported plan of some politicians to instigate violence in the state .
In the same vein, prominent traditional rulers from Oyo, Ibarapa, Ogbomoso and Oke Ogun areas of the state, on Wednesday, joined the list of visitors to the Oluyole residence of Ajimobi to felicitate with him on his re-election as the governor of the state.
The traditional rulers were led to the Oluyole residence of Governor Ajimobi by the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi who stated that the governor’s performance in his first term won last Saturday’s election for him.
While warning against violence, Governor Ajimobi said “surprisingly, the Accord Party has been complaining that it would go to court. No problem. If you look at the results of the election and the conduct, it was the freest and fairest election ever held. Everybody said it, all his agents signed at the polling units. It is only at the final collation center that they did not sign. Let him go to court,” he said.
At a meeting with his party members on Tuesday, Senator Rashidi Ladoja was quoted to have threatened to let his party members loose if assaulted by fellow politicians.
“We brought peace and security to Oyo State. We established that in the state and we will not fold our arms and allow any individual to destroy it. Senator Ladoja’s administration was replete with violence. Some people are sore losers, some are very sportsmanly. If he says he will resort to violence as reported, we will not tolerate it. Oyo state is a state where nobody is above the law. If he has complaints, let him go to the police to complain. But if he says he wants to lead some people to resort to violence in the state, we will deal with him. We don’t want violence in Oyo State again. Nobody is too big for the law in Oyo State. Anyone who is so desperate that even when defeated, he is crying about his intention to cause problems, he should follow due process and should obey the law of the land. He is not too big to obey the law. I guarantee you, should anybody lead any group to cause violence, the law will take its full weight to deal with them, I assure them,” he said.
Going into the details of the election, the governor affirmed that the APC won fair and square.
“If you look at the results of the election, APC had 25% in 29 local governments. Other parties did not meet the statutory requirement of 25%. Accord Party had only 17%. We won across six political zones out of seven. Accord and Labour won one each. Where is the spread of Accord Party? He did not win in Oyo, Ogbomoso, Oke Ogun I & II, and Ibadan city zones. He did not even meet the statutory requirement. Let him go to court, we are waiting,” he said.
During the visit of the monarchs, Oba Adeyemi, in his comment, described the victory of Senator Ajimobi as a well deserved victory if the achievement of the governor in the last four years were to be considered.
The Oyo monarch said the contributions of Ajimobi to the development of Oyo state surpassed those of his predecessors in office.
Oba Adeyemi said all royal fathers from the four zones that visited the Governor contributed immensely to the election that produced victory for Governor Ajimobi.
The Alaafin observed that only the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo ruled for eight years while the successive rulers ruled for four years. He however said since the inception of Governor Ajimobi, good governance, peace and security had returned to the state.
The traditional ruler, who described Ajimobi as a man of history, said that he was not surprised that he became the first governor who would rule the State for eight years.
In their separate contributions, the Eleruwa of Eruwa, Oba Samuel Adegbola, the Olugbon of Orile Igbon Oba Samuel Osunbade , Iba of Kisi Oba Moshood Aweda Lawal and the Olokaka of Okaka, Oba Abdul Azeez Olatunji, called the Governor-elect to work in line with the manifesto of his party.
The royal fathers also called on the candidates of the opposition parties to rally round Governor Ajimobi to move the state forward instead of engaging in court cases.
In his response, Governor Ajimobi expressed appreciation to the royal fathers for the support given to him and his party.
He expressed willingness to work with some of the candidates that contested along with him stressing that the trio of Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala , Engr Seyi Makinde and Senator Teslim Folarin had called to congratulate him.
Similarly ,traditional rulers from Ido local Government council have also extended a courtesy call to a Governor Ajimobi,
The Ido traditional council was led by the Ekerin Olubadan, High Chief Tajudeen Ajibola