The coronation of 21 Obas in Ibadan has continued to generate controversies, as a former Governor of Oyo State, Rashidi Ladoja, has querried Governor Abiola Ajimobi over his N100 million coronation expenditure for the Olubadan of Ibadan Land, Oba Saliu Adetunji.
It would be recalled that Governor Ajimobi had said in a TV interview on Saturday that the state government spent N100 million on the coronation of the Ibdan paramount ruler last year.
The former governor, who failed to turn up for his installation as one of the Obas, was reacting to the statement the governor made on the state broadcasting outfit, BCOS.
Ladoja, in a statement signed on his behalf by one of his media aides, Lanre Latinwo, stated that Ibadan people did not beg the governor for money for the coronation of the monarch a year ago.
“Was the money he claimed to have spent budgeted for? Was it personal money? Did Ibadan people go to him cap in hand for him to foot the bill? Oyo State money should be spent judiciously for the use of all the people of the state and not a section of it. How much did the governor spend on the coronation ceremonies in other towns and cities?”
The statement also lampooned Governor Ajimobi over his insistence that tuition fee at the state-owned Ladoke Akintola University of Technology should be reviewed.
On the governor’s assertion that he gave a gift of a plot of land to him, Ladoja denied receiving such gifts from the state governor.
“To set the records straight, the land in question is a plot of land which shares a common fence with Ladoja’s house and he has been the one weeding the plot and keeping it clean.
“Last year, the state Housing Corporation put a notice on the land to the effect that the state government wanted to revoke the plot. At that point, Ladoja indicated interest and wrote a letter to the officials and copied the letter to the governor.
“The land had been fallow before Ladoja became governor and he never abused his office by appropriating the government land to himself. So, when the matter got to his office, he (Ajimobi) said it should be given to Ladoja free of charge.
“Ladoja queried whether the governor has power to waive a statutory payment and wrote to the Housing Corporation asking for the cost of the allocation and to which no response has been sent till date. The story that he gave Ladoja a parcel of land therefore does not add’, the statement said.
