Senator Ladoja Is Teleguiding Ajimobi

Embattled Chairman of the National Union of Road transport Workers (NURTW) in Oyo State, Alhaji Lateef Akinsola alias Tokyo speaks with GBENRO ADESINA about the crisis of the union

Why have you joined the bandwagon to wear Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s cap?

I went to Chief Awolowo schools. I identify with Awo because he was the best leader we never had in the Southwest. He was a man of the people, he was a good and selfless person with high integrity. It is only good people that can aspire to emulate Awo.

Do you think that Yoruba leaders who dress like him are following his footsteps?

Few of them are following Awo’s steps but majority are not. A man following Awo’s steps is the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, (SAN).

When did you come back to your house after you ran away because you were declared wanted by the police?

There was a time I was in Lagos but when I came back, I went to court to clear myself of the allegation levelled against me. I didn’t do anything when the police declared me wanted.

What was the allegation?

There was a terrible fracas at Iwo road where many people were killed and I was alleged to have been involved in it. But I wasn’t involved. It was Mukaila alias Auxiliary and his thugs that launched their terror on the innocent people at Iwo road. But police included me because I was the union leader in the state.

What was your prayer in the court?

That my fundamental human right be respected and enforced and that the court should protect me from my enemies.

But the new Oyo State Commissioner of Police has also declared you wanted?

Joseph Mbu did not declare me wanted. The so-called declaration is an imagination of the press that is echoing it. My lawyer has written the new CP that I don’t have any question to answer and that it is only auxiliary that has questions to answer. I know those that committed the atrocities and were involved in the anarchy that happened at Iwo road. Auxiliary is the ring leader. He  should have been arrested. Honestly, I don’t know why police have not arrested auxiliary. He led the team that killed the innocent ones at Iwo road. He was at Ibadan since the incident happened.

How come you are involved?

I am the union leader but that doesn’t say that I should be punished for the offence that I didn’t commit. I have submitted all the copies of judgments that vindicated me and cleared me that I wasn’t part of the fracas to the IGP, Attorney General at the federal, state attorney general and CP.  I have been saying that Governor Abiola Ajimobi is a betrayal and I am still maintaining it to you that he is actually a betrayal. He is a real betrayal. In fact, he is a betrayal. People surrounding him are the ones misleading him to betray me. He is not doing what he is doing deliberately but people around him are pushing him to betray me by not reinstating me back to my office as he had promised before he became governor.

When did you become NURTW Chairman in the state?

Year 2000. Our tenure in NURTW is four years and if you perform well, you can be re-elected for the second term. My first term ended in 2003 but before I finished, the former governor, Senator Rashidi Ladoja arrested and incarcerated me at Agodi Prison for six months to the end of my first term and brought in Alhaji Tawa to succeed me. My sin, according to him, was that I was not loyal to him. But I am not a politician and I should not be partisan or make the union to be partisan. Later, Akala reinstated me. But it is the same Akala that caused the current problem on the ground. That was why I did not support him for a second term.

What was the problem Akala caused?

He manipulated my people and wrongly roped me into a murder case saying that I killed Eleweomo’s security guards. Eleweomo was my security guard. He used to sit in the same car with me when we were going out and opened the car door for me to either come in or go out. Akala and Eleweomo planned coup against me. But we later found out that nobody was killed. Rather, they bought a corpse and paraded it as the person I killed. Later, my people saw the person I was alleged to have killed. I brought it to the notice of the then CP, Alhaji Adisa Baba Bolanta who did nothing.

Did you see him yourself?

No, but my men saw him and he is still in Ibadan. I was arrested in my house for the sin I didn’t commit. They even lied that I was arrested on the roof top, a fat man like me. I was sleeping when policemen came and when I saw them, I called Akala but he didn’t pick his call. I called Rasaki, his deputy chief of staff who promised to call Bolanta to stop the arrest but did nothing. I was taken to Iyaganku and locked up in the cell for four days after which I was transferred to CIB, Eleyele and later transferred to SARS, Dugbe where I was maltreated. After three months, I was charged to court and later got bail. After my bail, I went to governor’s office but was disallowed from seeing Akala and I went to my house. Later I heard that Eleweomo has been made the state chairman of NURTW. I felt this was wrong and I went to court to challenge my illegal removal. The court reinstated me. I took the judgment to IGP, Attorney General of the Federation and CP in the state and attorney general of the federation ordered Bolanta to reinstate me but Bolanta and Akala refused to do so. The second day, Akala put Eleweomo and his men in the motor parks as council officers. That was why we didn’t support Akala for the second term. We supported Ajimobi.

What was your offence to Akala?

Akala said that he was told that I would not support his second term bid but it wasn’t true because as at that time, I wasn’t thinking about that.

Did he ask you to step down for Eleweomo and go for zonal office?

He didn’t tell me that. He only asked me after I came back from prison that I should allow Eleweomo to continue as the state chairman and I declined. I went to court again and won but he refused to reinstate me to my office.

At what point did you decide to support Ajimobi?

First, Ajimobi is my junior brother. He is also my in-law because he is related to one of my wives. He sent for me and I went to meet him in his house at Ring road. He asked me to support his governorship bid and mobilize my followers to vote for him. He said he didn’t have money to give me but promised to reinstate me. He said that I should sell any of my property to raise money for his campaign. I sold my uncompleted bungalow building at Olomi at N8million and spent it on Ajimobi’s campaign. I campaigned to the nooks and crannies of Ibadan. I campaigned at mechanic villages, markets, motor parks and my village, Abagbo near Abanla at Oluyole Local Government. He won and on the day of his swearing-in, he promised to execute all the courts judgments. He did some and left some including my own. We eventually took over some parks. Later, Akala and Auxiliary planned and went to Iwo road to kill innocent people. I wasn’t around. I went to Lagos for a wedding ceremony and from there to Babcock University, for my daughter, Adijat’s graduation. Immediately I was called and told, I left the place and came to Ajimobi and told him I wasn’t involved and he promised to look into it. I also went to Alaafin and Arisekola to tell them I wasn’t involved.

All things being equal, by your calculation, your second tenure should end this year, so how do you come about 2015?

I was re-elected in 2008 but I was not allowed to spend my second term and that was why I went back to court. Court condemned Ajimobi for proscribing the union, and said he didn’t have the power he exercised and asked him to reinstate me, but he refused. New elections in our union will take place in 2015 and I suppose to be there till next election.

Why do you think Ajimobi does not want you there?

Contrary to what he makes us to believe that he cannot be teleguided, some people in the state are teleguiding him. I went to Lam Adesina and Bola Ahmed Tinubu to show them the judgments.  They asked Ajimobi to reinstate me but he refused because Senator Ladoja threatened him that if he does, he would plan for his impeachment through Accord and PDP members who are members in the Oyo State House of Assembly. He is afraid of Ladoja but now he has no option than to reinstate me. Besides, he feels that there is money in NURTW because a lawyer wrote to him that we generate N31million daily. Instead of him to call me and seek for clarification, he feels that the park is a place too big to leave for our union. That is why he is building motor parks here and there and putting administrators in charge. It is bad that Ajimobi is surrounding himself with enemies. Those that he has entrusted the union to are PDP members and people that worked against him during the election. Their first love is PDP not ACN. They will betray him. When the chips are down, they will turn the table against him.

Can’t you hands off for peace to reign?

It is too late because there is a court judgment that must be obeyed. Doing otherwise will set a bad precedence in the country.

What is the way forward?

For the sake of peace, Ajimobi should respect the court judgment by reinstating me.

And if otherwise?

There will be anarchy. Right now, we have served them with the contempt of court. I am doing all these to avoid crisis and if the court rule now and they still refused to obey the court order, we will go their own way.