Adedibu, Akala blast Ibadan elders’ forum

By Akin Durodola and Jackson Udom - 08.01.2008

CHIEFTAIN of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, on Monday replied to Ibadan Elders Forum’s claim that Senator Abiola Ajimobi won the April governorship election, saying they were politicians who counted their chickens before they are hatched.

Alhaji Adedibu’s reply was contained in a release signed by his personal assistant, Honourable Segun Okeowo, and made available to the Nigerian Tribune

According to the release, “the so-called elite, in their characteristic desperate manner, do not care about the trite position of the law that refrains any person from making comments on a matter before a court of competent jurisdiction.

“We have on several occasions made it known that they are politicians, yet, they continue to deny this. They had alloted key positions in the governmnt of Oyo State among themselves before they lost at the polls, hence their bitterness and resolve not to see anything good in whatever they think contradict their interest and aspirations,” he said.

Also, the Ibadan Elders’ Forum has been advised to accept what they cannot change. The Oyo State governor, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala, through his Special Adviser on Public Communications, Prince Dotun Oyelade, said this while reacting to the insistence of the forum that Senator Ajimobi won the last governorship election in the state.

He said it was unacceptable for a select group to arrogate to itself powers they never derive neither from the constitution nor the electorate.

According to him, the state governor was not bothered if the Ibadan Elders’ Forum had preference for a particular candidate, even when they did not represent the “democratic voice of all Ibadan people, but it is more worrisome and an insult to assume that a state with 33 local governments should be subjugated by the minority.

“It smacks of arrogance where all constituted bodies including the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the police, political parties and lately, the election petition tribunal, have not been spared from the barrage of accusations all because the Ibadan Elders Forum insists that its anointed candidate must be foisted on the rest of us,” the release added.