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A former governor of Oyo State and leader of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, said on Monday that he is ready to dump the party if impunity continues in the party.
Some reports say he and his supporters were already looking for the new party to join. Although a source disclosed that the former governor is not planning to Accord Party.
Crisis is brewing in the state chapter of the party following a harmonized list of the State Executive allegedly released by the national leadership of the party.
Recall that the Seyi Makinde faction held a parallel Congress November, last year, when the Ladoja faction was holding another one supervised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Speaking on an interview programme on Splash F.M, Ibadan, on Monday, the former governor said he has no problem with Makinde as he enjoys a father-son relationship with him.
He however said he was miffed that the impunity which drove him away from the PDP in 2010 was happening again.
He also reaffirmed his decision not to contest governorship election again in the state, stressing that his preoccupation was how to install a people’s government in the state in 2019.
His words: “There was only one state congress held as far as I am concerned and Alhaji Kunmi Mustapha emerged as the chairman. The issue of the state executive being shared 14 and 12 does not even arise at all. There is and there will be nothing like that.
“It was impunity that drove us from the PDP and if they allow the impunity to return, we will leave the party for them. We brought Accord less than four months to the 2011 elections and the people of the state accepted the party.
“Wherever there is impunity, you will not find me there. How will some people think of going to Abuja to ask them to help to substitutes names of their preferred candidates in the list of duly elected officers? It is very wrong and we will not accept that,” he said.
On the judgment nullifying the coronation of 21 new obas by Governor Abiola Ajimobi last year, Ladoja said the court made a declarative judgment which must be complied with, irrespective of the appeal filled by the defendants.
“By the judgment, these people should cease to call themselves oba and should not be wearing their so-called crown or coronet. There was a picture of one of them sent to me from Kano State that he wore the coronets.
“I will ask my lawyer to call the attention of the court to the flouting of its judgment. They are acting in contempt of court. The governor, my aburo should have called them to order and ask them to desist from illegality. They can wear the coronet in their houses, after all they can be kings of their houses, but outside their homes.
“The court gave a declarative judgment which means that irrespective of the appeal filed by them, the judgment subsists until set aside by a court of higher jurisdiction. The court said the retired Justice Akintunde Boade-led Commission of Inquiry is unknown to law and does not exist. These so-called obas too do not exist in the eyes of the law. That judgment still stands,” he said.