Legal battle between Ladoja, Alao-Akala rages on

By Yemi Banjo - 01.07.2009

DESPITE the widely reported reconciliation of the Oyo State governor, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala and his former boss, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, a legal battle initiated by the latter against his successor, over an attempt to probe him, is still being fiercely fought at an Ibadan high court.

Alao-Akala and Ladoja had on Thursday June 11, 2009, at the end of a three-hour reconciliatory meeting, spearheaded by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, given an indication that a truce was on the way between them.

Apart from the two topmost political gladiators in Oyo State, the widely publicised meeting was also attended by the Osun State governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, PDP National Vice Chairman, (South-West), Alhaji Tajudeen Oladipo, ex-governor Kolapo Ishola, Alhaji Yekini Adeojo, Brigadier-General Raji Rasaki (rtd) and Alhaji Azeem Gbolarumi.

An indication that all was not well between Ladoja and Alao-Akala emerged yesterday at an Ibadan high court at the resumed hearing of the suit filed by Ladoja to challenge the establishment of a judicial commission of enquiry to probe his administration as the governor of Oyo State between 1st December, 2006 and May 31, 2007.

A motion on notice for an interlocutory injunction against the Oyo State government and members of the panel could not be taken because the counsel to the defendant, Mr. Hakeem Afolabi, sought for a short adjournment to enable him correct certain error in the papers filed by the defendants in court.

Ladoja’s lead counsel, Alhaji Lasun Sanusi, SAN, did not object to the request and the trial judge, Justice Waheed Olaifa, adjourned the case to July 28, 2009, for the hearing of the motion on notice.