Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo state has warned that his administration would not tolerate any form of violence from Senator Rasheed Ladoja, the Accord Party governorship candidate who lost to him in last election, stressing that, the full weight of law would be used to deal with him if he misbehaves.
Ajimobi disclosed this today in Ibadan while briefing the press on the reported plan of the erstwhile governor to instigate violence in the state.
While warning against violence, Governor Ajimobi said “surprisingly, the Accord Party has been complaining that it would go to court. No problem. If you look at the results of the election and the conduct, it was the freest and fairest election ever held. Everybody said it, all his agents signed at the polling units. It is only at the final collation centre that they did not sign. Let him go to court,” he said.
It would be recalled that at a meeting with his party members on Tuesday, Senator Rashidi Ladoja was quoted to have threatened to let his party members loose if assaulted by fellow politicians.
“We brought peace and security to Oyo state. We established that in the state and we will not fold our arms and allow any individual to destroy it. Senator Ladoja’s administration was replete with violence. Some people are sore losers, some are very sportsmanly. If he says he will resort to violence as reported, we will not tolerate it. Oyo state is a state where nobody is above the law. If he has complaints, let him go to the police to complain.
“But if he says he wants to lead some people to resort to violence in the state, we will deal with him. We don’t want violence in Oyo state again. Nobody is too big for the law in Oyo state. Anyone who is so desperate that even when defeated, he is crying about his intention to cause problems, he should follow due process and should obey the law of the land. He is not too big to obey the law. I guarantee you, should anybody lead any group to cause violence, the law will take its full weight to deal with them, I assure them,” he said.
Going into the details of the election, the governor affirmed that the APC won fair and square adding, “If you look at the results of the election, APC had 25 per cent in 29 local governments. Other parties did not meet the statutory requirement of 25 per cent. Accord Party had only 17 per cent. We won across six political zones out of seven. Accord and Labour won one each. Where is the spread of Accord Party? He did not win in Oyo, Ogbomoso, Oke Ogun I & II, and Ibadan city zones. He did not even meet the statutory requirement. Let him go to court, we are waiting,” he said.