Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that former Gov. Rashidi Ladoja was impeached and removed as governor of Oyo State for being ungrateful to Chief Lamidi Adedibu and Chief Yekinni Adeojo.
He made the disclosure on Thursday during the launching of former Gov. Adebayo Alao-Akala’s autobiography titled Amazing Grace in Ibadan.
Alao-Akala, an APC Chieftain, is a former governor of Oyo State on the platform of PDP from 2007 to 2011 and was the deputy governor of the state from 2003- 2007 when Ladoja was impeached.
Obasanjo said that Ladoja was impeached when all efforts to reconcile him with the late Adedibu and Adeojo failed, adding that Ladoja had turned deaf ears to his entreaties and he paid heavily for it.
“You pointed out on page 140 that Ladoja picked up a quarrel with me for reason of a non-existent third term. I didn’t know that Ladoja picked up a quarrel that his becoming governor was due to the grace of God and major contributions of the two people.
“I pleaded with him to make accommodation for them both. He told me that they were all Ibadan people and they knew how to deal with themselves. He subsequently proved himself right as they dealt with themselves and he, Ladoja, came out the worse for it,” he said.
On his part, Alao-Alala said that he was a product of grace, saying God paved his way to greatness. The former governor said that the title of his autobiography was not a happenstance, but a providence to bring him out of the dungeon of a hopeless tomorrow to the fulfillment of destiny.
He narrated how his long anticipated desire was fulfilled, notwithstanding threat to achieving the dream. “The tragic death of my father in a road accident in 1952 single-handedly threatened my dream of getting to the cusp of my life aspirations. But providence miraculously found for me a path to the top,” he said.
Alao-Akala said that the 140-page book contained how he attained his desire and changed the lives of the people in the state.
“How I became governor of Oyo State is also documented which serves as a reminder to those who may be prone to being quickly swept off by the amnesia of history that God used me.”
He said that it showed “how myself and my team of dependable colleagues at that period in time changed the lives of the people in the state”.
