Connect with us

Opinion

Circumstantial evidence says it’s murder, sir!

Published

5 years ago

on

(A factionalized – fact and fiction – account of murder in a hotel)

Media frenzy over the death of Tim Goke, a 37-year old man whose remains were found in a hotel, had been very huge and unsettling. As Police Detective and Head of its Legal Division, Muhammadu Kura sat on the swivel chair in his office at Kam Salem Police Headquarters this Wednesday afternoon, he reflected on his encounter with the Inspector General of Police about 40 hours back. The media had literally dragged the IG off his fanny to begin to take drastic actions. 

The social media had already given its own judgment, hanging accused persons on the crucifix. It alleged a cover up in the offing by top echelon of the police, in cahoots with the accused, about seven of them. A section of the media even claimed that the owner of the hotel, one Chief Adetayo Ola, was a political godson of one of the bigwigs in Nigeria’s ruling party. In an apparent move to deflect the arrows being daily shot at the police, the IG had summoned Kura to his office and literally threw the huge file that contained all the investigated details of the death at him.

As Kura wondered what this whole drama was all about, the Inspector General had thundered in a baritone:  “The President of the Republic has been inundated with calls about this case. There are allegations that we wanted to cover up evil doers.

Pathologists have said that Tim Goke probably died of natural causes and we won’t have a case against the accused in court. Kura, you are a wizard in criminal law, apart from being one of the best detectives police in Nigeria today. I am interested in charging the accused to court. Go through the file and give me your recommendation in 48 hours. Thank you and have a good day.”

Muhammadu Kura was indeed police’s best investigator and lawyer. With a Master’s degree in Criminology from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, the 42-year old Kanuri-born Superintendent of Police was also a lawyer, his turf being Criminal Law. He had spent the last 40 hours literally fasting but smoking like a chimney. He pored through the huge file of documents, acquainting himself with the facts of the case and making notes. As he sat on the swivel chair, beads of sweat stubbornly glided from his bushy head, making a puddle on his table, even as the air conditioner whooshed like a silent accomplice. At a point, Kura stood up, headed for his pack of Marlboro cigarettes, selected one and with an unruly hand, gummed one on his flabby lips and lit it up. He took an urgent drag, puffed a huge pall of smoke out which hit the ceiling as if in a rebellious slap.

From his jukebox sang Jamaican reggae music idol, Bob Marley’s Small Axe track. Kura intensified his smoking as he listened to the song which seemed to instigate him to want to get to the bottom of the investigation. Marley’s voice, as if specifically ministering to him, wafted into his ears: “Why boasteth thyself, Oh, evil men//Playing smart And not being clever?//Oh no, I said, you’re working iniquity//To achieve vanity//But the goodness of Jah, Jah I-dureth forever//If you are the big tree//We are the small axe//Sharpened to cut you down…Ready to cut you down//These are the words//Of my master, keep on tellin’ me//No weak heart//Shall prosper…//And whosoever diggeth a pit, Lord//Shall fall in it, shall fall in it//Whosoever diggeth a pit//Shall bury in it, shall bury in it…”

The facts of Tim’s death were already in the public domain. A postgraduate student of a university in the town where he was allegedly killed, he had lodged in the hotel named Valley. In a very curious twist, the hotel management had made all attempts to hide the fact of his lodgment with it. It was only when police investigations found this out that the receptionist, the first suspect in the case, and other accomplices, led police officers to a bush where Tim was buried. This led to the arrest of the alleged accomplices and owner of the hotel, Chief Adetayo with huge allegations made that Tim might have been used for rituals. The alibi of the receptionist suspect and other alleged accomplices was that, they had found Tim dead early in the morning of the second day of his lodgment and had spirited his corpse to the outskirts of the city to hide linkage of his death to the hotel.

Kura then brought out a copy of the autopsy report conducted on Tim’s body and began to examine it. Three pathologists and four other medical experts participated in the four-hour autopsy that took place in the Department of Morbid Anatomy of the University Teaching Hospital of the state where the death took place. The report claimed that Tim died of ‘severe trauma’ but that medicine could not ascertain the cause of death because his remains were at advanced stage of decomposition. However, Tim’s internal and external organs were said to be untouched. The reports however said that the femur of the deceased was found to have had a “sub-capital fracture.”

For almost an hour, the top police officer ruminated on the autopsy report. While medicine doubted the cause of Tim’s death, Kura wondered if law could doubt why he died. The first point of attraction for him was the broken femur of Tim’s body. What could have led to the fracture? Granted that pathologists claimed that the internal and external organs of the deceased were untouched, were they aware that in the occultic world, the blood of the victim was as germane to rituals more than any other part? He remembered he had read about rituals involving blood which have been in existence for many centuries which still lingered into the 21st century. 

Five hundred years ago, the Aztecs, a Mesoamerican people who flourished in central Mexico during the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521.were involved in blood rituals between 1376 and 1521 AD. They sacrificed blood as offering to the Sun God. To them, death was part of life, just like birth. By spilling blood meant for rituals, they believed that the gods would compensate them by giving them bountiful crop yields, healthy and long lives. In India, it is believed that the individuals receiving shed blood are given more time to live by the gods. Thus, in Africa too, many engage in rituals so that they could have long life, prosperity and wellbeing. With these in mind, Kura wondered why the pathologists failed to see a probable nexus between the broken femur where blood could have been drained and the cause of the killing of Tim.

He instantly remembered a murder case that the police handled in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State in August, 2017. A 73-year-old pensioner, Mrs. Adetutu Ajayi, was killed at her residence, No 10, Moferere, Ajilosun area by unknown assailants. Upon killing her, while they made away with her fingers, her blood was drained and taken away in her own bucket. Ajayi was daughter of a former Accountant General of the Old Western Region, Mr. Samuel Sotoowa.

Still puffing crazily at his cigarette, Kura walked to the bookshelf in his office and brought out one of his text books on Criminal Law. He flipped the pages to a section called Circumstantial Evidence and began to read like one readying for an examination. The case that came to his attention was Adepetu v The State which lawyers always cite in justifying circumstantial evidence. It was the case of one Olusola Adepetu, a renowned herbal traditional practitioner in Oyo State in the 1990s whose herbal enterprise went by the name, Olusola Naturalist Hospital. He was a major precursor of the trade, with high public awareness on the radio arm of the  Oyo State Broadcasting  Corporation.

Adepetu had been befriending one Miss Ranti Moradeyo and on the night of November 20, 1990, had gone to the lady’s house, picked her to  God-knows-where.  She was never seen alive thereafter. The next day, her corpse was found in the Sanyo area on the Lagos-Ibadan highway. Whoever placed it there wanted vehicles to have mutilated the body in pieces, so that the fact of severance of her body parts for rituals would be hidden for life. Adepetu was subsequently charged to the Oyo State High Court and the trial judge, piecing together circumstantial evidence, including the doctrine of “the last seen,” had convicted Adepetu according to Section 319(1) of the Criminal Code Cap 30 Laws of Oyo State 1978. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Prosecution had called 19 witnesses. Following an overruling of the defence’s no-case submission, Adepetu gave evidence and called a single witness. The Appellate Court and the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment, leading to Adepetu spending about 25 years in the Kirikiri Prison.

Circumstantial evidence, from what Kura read, is observed where “no direct evidence of an eyewitness to the commission of an offence is available.” The court then “may infer from the facts proved, the existence of other facts which logically and conclusively establish the guilt of the accused person beyond reasonable doubt. Accordingly, when strong circumstantial evidence is led against an accused in a criminal trial and this gives rise to an inference irresistibly warranted by such evidence, the criminal court will not hesitate to make such inference as long as it is so cogent and compelling as to convince the jury that on no rational hypothesis other than the inference can the facts be accounted for.” Reading further, Kura learnt that the criminal liability of an appellant “was based on the natural consequence of his act or omission. Intent may also be proved positively by proof of the declaration of the accused as to his intent or inferentially.”

With all that Kura had gathered in the last 47 hours, he stood up like a drunk tottering on his drunken feet. He had literally known no sleep within the last two days or so. He momentarily peered into his strapless wrist watch and discovered he had less than an hour to address the Inspector General. In a sprint-like dash, he hopped into the elevator of the Police headquarters and with a fidgety hand, pressed the last floor button that would take him to the zenith of the high rise building.

The IG was expecting him. He sat cupped in a chair by his conference table, his cap removed, showing an acute baldness with shards of grey hairs that looked like icing on a black cake surrounding his head.

Waffling initially but quickly picking himself up, SP Kura began: “Circumstantial evidence says it’s murder, sir and we can sustain the charge. The circumstances are indubitable and they all point at conspiracy to murder and murder. The chain of circumstances is this, sir: Immediately Tim Goke entered Valley Hotel and paid N37,000 to the receptionist, the plot began. Oblivious of the power of technology and fate that made him call his wife as he was entering the hotel, the conspirators assumed that the fact of where he lodged would be concealed from investigators. Unfortunately, his account details revealed the payment. When detectives came to the hotel, the receptionist denied that Tim ever lodged there. It was upon interrogation that she spilled the beans and revealed other suspects.

“While the suspects’ alibi was that they found his dead body the next morning and shoveled it into the bush to disconnect the hotel from his death, it doesn’t add up and feeds into the line of a perfectly orchestrated conspiracy. If the fear of the dis-advertisement or bad publicity that a dead lodger would give the hotel were to be the major reason for their abstruse action, they should have known that in this modern age, since they purportedly didn’t have a hand in the death, an autopsy would have exonerated the hotel. Going to the length and the risk of taking Tim’s body to the bush is suspiciously incriminating enough and the circumstance pointing at murder and conspiracy. Again, as James Hadley Chase says that criminals always leave traces, no matter how small, these ones buried their victim with the bed sheet of the hotel and like the Ranti Moradeyo lady’s corpse in Adepetu v The State, they apparently believed Tim’s body would never be found.”

Kura picked a bottle of water on the Inspector General’s table and without prompting, poured it into his dry throat.

“I interviewed a pathologist who told me that the “severe trauma” in the pathologists’ report is ambivalent and could as well mean that the deceased was hit with an object leading to his death. According to him, the decomposition of the internal organ could be as a result of a corrosive acid intentionally poured into the deceased’s mouth at death. The mark found by pathologists on his neck cannot be accidental as well. It could mean that he was strangled. If we had the carbon dating technology in Nigeria, it would have been easier to determine whether the wound on the remains’ neck was pre or after death. Tim was healthy, from evidence we gathered and not suffering from any illness. He was said to have attended a meeting in Akure, hale and hearty.

“The disappearance of a major suspect in the alleged crime, said to be Chief Adetayo, the hotel owner’s son and one who allegedly participated in the process of taking Tim’s body into the forest, is a circumstantial thread that may link his father to the committal of the crime. We must ensure we bring him to book. We must get mobile phone service providers to give us Chief Adetayo’s call logs and all Chief’s call and discussions between the time Tim arrived the hotel and the time of the disposal of his corpse. How frequently did he speak with his son or any of the accused? What did they discuss? It is arrant nonsense to say that just because somebody was a typical Nigerian big man who established universities and big hotels, he cannot be steeped in occultic practices. Indeed, more than half of Nigerian big men are ritualists – from politicians, to judges, to you-name-them,” Kura said.

While rounding off his submission, he said: “Inspector General sir, facts of circumstantial evidence tell me that we have a good case if we charge the hotel owner and the other accused to court for conspiracy and murder. We should not allow the image of the Police Force to be further dented by pussy-footing in walking to the justice chambers.”

As he did this, in a queer manner that suggested his belief in his submission, Kura stood up from his seat, made the traditional police salute in obeisance to the Inspector General, headed for the door and slammed it shut behind him.

 

Dr. Festus Adedayo, journalist, lawyer and public affairs analyst, writes from Ibadan

Related Topics:
Comments

Opinion

Governor Seyi Makinde’s Media Chat: A Hundred And Twenty Minutes Of Trash Talk | By Sola Abegunde

Published

2 days ago

on

October 13, 2026

By

I knew that Governor Makinde would provide us with a hundred and twenty minutes of comic relief and at the same time, I knew he is bound to commit unforced errors which would further expose his shenanigans.

The outgoing Governor of Oyo state did not disappoint on both fronts.

Personally, I understand the need for him to have one final valedictory Media Chat.

The atmosphere might be too hot for him to even think of such luxury after the general election in 2027. So, if he’s got the opportunity now, why not take a shot at it?

I must however say that the Governor displayed his insensitivity right from the choice of the Studio the Chat was aired.

Shortly before the Media Chat commenced, I came across a release signed by the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalist, NUJ, BCOS Chapel, Com. Ademola Balogun.

Com. Balogun was full of lamentations concerning the very terrible state of the Oyo state Broadcasting Corporations, BCOS.

He was of the very strong opinion that the BCOS should have meaningful opportunities to cover Government activities.

He also called on Governor Seyi Makinde to empower the BCOS to invest in modern studio, transmitting equipment, digital broadcasting facilities and online platforms.

Com. Ademola spoke extensively about Staff welfare and other issues.

Sadly, while Governor Seyi Makinde has been consistent in empowering a particular Radio station, the Broadcasting Corporations of Oyo state, BCOS has been dying slowly.

Unfortunately, I have no good news for Com. Ademola. His lamentations will definitely fall on stone deaf ears. It is too late for Governor Makinde to change his ways. I just pray that the Governor would not wake up one day and sold off whatever remains of the Corporation.

That is just by the way. Let me address Governor Makinde’s Media Chat for whatever it is worth. The Governor spent a whole two hours venting anger and spreading outright lies and half-truths.

I am surprised that Governor Makinde has not seen any reason for him to have a second thought about his awkward and reckless comments about the Law Profession.

I am saying this because, for the second time, his Deputy was sitting closely beside him and yet, he felt like it was humorous for him to take a dig at Senator Sarafadeen Abiodun Alli, the All Progressives Congress, APC Gubernatorial candidate, regarding his misconceived failure as a Law practitioner.

He repeated the ignorant and reckless comments about Senator Alli, not being a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and for that reason, according to Governor Seyi Makinde, the Oyo South Senator is not an accomplished Legal Practitioner.

He had made that same reckless comments a couple of weeks ago and at that time also, the Deputy Governor was beside him!

The respectable man is an accomplished Lawyer of many years of experience, who had trained a lot of successful Lawyers.

I also wonder, how people like Dr. Nureni Adeniran and Olasunkanmi Olaleye, who are also Lawyers and have been working with Governor Seyi Makinde over the years would feel about those reckless comments coming from their Boss.

If you want to follow Governor Seyi Makinde’s reasoning, if you are a teacher and you did not rise to the status of a School Principal or Head teacher, then, you’re a failure.

If you are a Military Personnel and you didn’t rise to the position of a General, you’re a failure!

Any time I saw the Governor arguing in this regard, I always asked myself if he was actually himself, because, for me, only a drunkard is capable of reasoning in that manner, or, perhaps, some young elements who had taken so much banned substances.

I have carefully analyzed the 120 minutes Media Chat and I saw that Governor Seyi Makinde spent so much time treating two issues.

The first, being his frustration about his perceived betrayal by president Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the second being his failed attempt to rewrite the Constitution of Nigeria regarding the financial autonomy for Local Governments.

The birthday boy tried to work him through the crisis at the Circular Road, but it was obvious that the main reasons behind Governor Makinde’s Media Chat were grounded on his firm beliefs that Tinubu breached certain agreements with him and others in 2023 and his warped opinion about how the Local Governments should operate within our Federation.

Let’s start with Governor Seyi Makinde’s allegations against Tinubu.

According to him, in 2023, an agreement was signed between certain individuals, including himself.

He said there was an agreement that a Government of National Unity would be formed by president Tinubu after he won the presidential election of 2023 and that he and the Governor of Lagos state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu were signatories to that agreement.

According to him, president Tinubu was not a signatory to the agreement but he was informed after the agreement was signed!

He went further to say that on the strength of that agreement, he presented Bimbo Adekambi as a Ministerial nominee because the president had earlier told him that he wanted to appoint the Minister for Budget and Planing from Oyo state.

To his chagrin and disappointment, president Tinubu settled for Bayo Adelabu and asked him to own the nomination of the former Minister for power, a request he claimed he rejected.

He therefore concluded that all the Ministers nominated from the South West are from Bourdilon.

I have carefully analyzed this confession by Governor Seyi Makinde and I have a few questions for him.

Why is it that Governor Seyi Makinde is the only one complaining about a breached agreement?

Why did it take him all these long to come out with this fact?

What was the criteria for the nomination of Bimbo Adekambi? Did he just take a random decision to choose Adekambi without a prior relationship between the two of them or what?

How does Governor Seyi Makinde want to convince any right thinking person that he believed an agreement would be binding on Tinubu on the strength of Governor Sanwo-Olu’s alleged signature?

For me, that doesn’t make any sense, most especially, for an ” accomplished Engr” like Seyi Makinde!

I am surprised that Governor Makinde leaves out what he benefited from the alignment with Tinubu in 2023.

Remove the alignment with Tinubu in 2023, Seyi Makinde was a goner and the fact that he was able to secure a second term in office ought to have been enough for him.

I am also surprised that Governor Makinde didn’t understand that he was advertising his penchant for serial betrayal and greed when he was relating the events that shaped his re-election in 2023.

It was all about him and the decisions he took, not only affected the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP alone, it also affected certain candidates of his party during the first ballot in 2023.

Now, to the issue of Local Government Autonomy.

Governor Seyi Makinde is a very funny individual. He was very clear about his position on Local Government Autonomy in 2023.

His position was that he never even believed in their existence and I was amused when the birthday boy was saying that despite his position on Local Government Autonomy in 2023, he was still able to win in 31 Local Governments, signifying the fact that the people of Oyo state believed Governor Makinde’s explanations.

I am extremely happy that Governor Seyi Makinde has not changed his opinion on how Local Governments should operate within the Federating units.

He is still stuck on the fact that the 33 Local Governments in Oyo state should be appendages to the State Government, even, in spite of the Judgment of the Supreme Court granting them full financial autonomy.

I am shocked that Governor Seyi Makinde could attempt to confuse what happened between the Lagos state Government when Tinubu was Governor of the state and the Federal Government during Obasanjo’s period, with the illegalities he has been perpetuating with the resources 33 Local Governments.

There is a clear distinction between both scenarios.

In the case of Tinubu as Governor of Lagos state, the Lagos state Government created more Local Governments and the Federal Government was of the opinion that the state Government was wrong to have done so.

As a result of this misunderstanding, the Federal Government stopped the monthly allocations for the Local Governments in Lagos state and it led to a Judicial dispute.

In the end, the Supreme Court held that the Local Governments created by the Lagos state Government were incohate, but it faulted the Federal Government for withholding the monthly allocations belonging to the Local Governments in Lagos state.

Lagos state Government thereafter recognized and administered the newly created Local Governments as Local Government Development Areas and many states have since copied the template, including Oyo state.

In the present scenario, the president, through the Attorney general of the Federation approached the Supreme Court and sought to secure full financial autonomy for the 774 Local Governments and the Supreme Court agreed to the request.

I have been asking myself, why is it that Governor Seyi Makinde is having problems with that judgement?

The monthly allocations released to the 33 Local Governments are released against their names.

Is Governor Seyi Makinde saying that it is proper for a Governor to still be the supervisor for the 33 Local Governments?

How does the judgment of the Supreme Court translate to the Federal Government trying to take control of the 774 Local Governments?

Yorubas will always say that a dog can not stand watch over two different buildings. ( Aja kii roro, ko so ojule meji po).

I was also surprised to hear Governor Seyi Makinde talking about the fact that, instead of full financial autonomy for the Local Governments, he preferred to discuss about how the Local Governments could be empowered to survive without monthly allocations from Abuja.

Haba! Governor Makinde!! Gently now.

You are depriving the Local Governments of their entitlements and you except them to thrive. How would that happen?

Why didn’t we start with the state? Can Oyo state survive without monthly allocations?

I think everyone can now see that Bimbo Adekambi as Governor, would never allow the Local Governments to breathe.

On the other hand, Senator Sarafadeen Abiodun Alli has promised to guarantee full financial autonomy for the 33 Local Governments and the implementation of the policy requires no rocket science. All it requires is the will.

There is an existing judgment of the Supreme Court which has outlined the steps to be taken by any willing state Government.

Sarafa Alli only needs to direct relevant stakeholders at the Local Governments to comply with the judgment and that is the end of the matter.

What is so difficult in that, if you are not covetous?

I might have to do this piece in series but I will like to warn the residents of the Circular Road.

You heard Governor Seyi Makinde. He is promising you nothing.

My only problem with him is his attempts to shift the blame of the chaos he orchestrated at the Circular Road on the late Governor Abiola Ajimobi.

He even said that that the Government of Ajimobi defrauded residents of the Circular Road!

Sometimes, people like Governor Seyi Makinde needs no one to enchant them. Their character is an enchantment on itself.

If you’re saying that the Governments of the late Ajimobi defrauded residents of the Circular Road, is Bimbo Adekambi not an integral part of that Government and that is before you begin to ask the Governor for proofs.

I enjoyed Governor Seyi Makinde’s valedictory Media Chat, while looking forward to the new era awaiting him next year.

My father used to tell us that the mouth of the liar does not ooze blood. ( Enu opuro kii seje).

By the way, I saw that Governor Seyi Makinde never mentioned anything about the report of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the abduction of Teachers and Pupils of Yawota and Esinele communities of Oriire Local Government.

How far now?

Sola Abegunde.

Continue Reading

Opinion

Re: Adekambi vs Alli: Dr. Olanrewaju’s Descent To Soliloquizing | Sola Abegunde

Published

2 weeks ago

on

October 1, 2026

By

 

I have read Dr. Sulaimon Olanrewaju’s piece titled ” Adekambi vs Alli: Between Substance And Sensationalism” and it offers me a lot of entertainment.

Dr. Sulaimon Olanrewaju is a seasoned Journalist no doubt. Very brilliant mind, but, he needs a lecture on politics and governance.

No matter how educated or professional you could be, if you lack basic knowledge about raw politics and governance at different tiers of Government, you are bound to struggle like a fish out of the water each time you attempt to defend certain positions.

Very obviously, Dr. Olanrewaju doesn’t know how a Local Government should operate on a normal situation, even, before the Judgment of the Supreme Court obtained by president Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

I will refer Dr. Olanrewaju to a document titled ” Financial Memorandum for Local Governments”.

That document speaks to how funds belonging to the Local Governments could be legally spent.

It will also provide accurate information about the roles and powers of the Local Government Chairmen, Head of Local Government Administration, the Finance and General Purposes Committee, F&GPC, how approvals for funds, projects and how contracts are signed at the Local Government level.

Had it been that Dr. Olanrewaju had proper information, I am sure that he wouldn’t have advertised his ignorance the way he did, in the argument about Financial autonomy for Local Governments which Senator Sarafadeen Abiodun Alli is promising.

He would also have known that his Principal, Governor Seyi Makinde had been engaged in criminal activities in the manner he had been withdrawing and spending resources belonging to the 33 Local Governments illegally since 2019.

Perhaps I need to repeat this for emphasis sake. There is no Law that empowers a state Governor to withdraw money belonging to the Local Governments for the execution of projects on behalf of the Local Governments.

The fact that the monthly allocations for the 33 Local Governments would have to drop on a joint account does not confer any authority on a state Governor to illegally withdraw and spend same.

It is the responsibility of the F&GPC for each of the Local Governments to identify projects it wants to execute, approve funds for same and if the funds are beyond the approving limits of the F&GPC, it will seek approval from the Governor through the office of the Commissioner for Local Governments.

If the project would be executed as a contract, it is the sole responsibility of the HLGA to sign the contract agreement.

That is what Senator Sarafadeen Abiodun Alli is saying. That he would not make illegal withdrawals from the Local Governments funds. That he will allow the F&GPC for the 33 Local Governments to function without hinderance. That he will allow the Career officers to do their duties assigned to them by Law.

If Governor Seyi Makinde doesn’t believe in the existence of the Local Governments and he is not hiding this fact and Sarafa Alli is saying, I believe in a functional and free Local Government, where is the sensationalism in that?

Truth hurts. Dr. Olanrewaju can not, through his essay, which I consider an afterthought, rewrite the fact that, his Principal publicly declared that he doesn’t believe in the existence of the Local Governments, not to talk of allowing them to function freely.

I am surprised that Dr. Olanrewaju is of the opinion that Senator Sarafadeen Abiodun Alli is not saying what he would do differently.

I know that the Special Adviser on Media to Governor Seyi Makinde is not deaf. Neither is he blind or dumb. He is only being hypocritical.

How else does the Allied People’s Movement, APM and its Gubernatorial candidate want the All Progressives Congress, APC Gubernatorial candidate to say what he is going to do differently?

On this issue of Financial autonomy for Local Governments, Sarafadeen Alli is saying, contrary to the illegalities of the past seven years plus, he will not concern himself with the responsibilities that are ordinarily that of the Local Governments.

On Education, he has declared that he will ensure that we go back to the 30 Pupils per classroom policy of the former Governor, Senator Rasidi Adewolu Ladoja, now, H. I . M, Oba Senator Rasidi Adewolu Ladoja.

He said he will revive the Broadcasting Corporations of Oyo state, BCOS which is gasping for breath under Governor Seyi Makinde.

He was emphatic about the fact that he would set up a Committee to review the crisis created at the Circular Road by Governor Seyi Makinde within 72 hours when he is elected as the Governor of Oyo state.

He said he would review the sales and handing over of our Farm Settlements to Estate Developers amongst other promises.

On these issues, what are the clear positions taken by Adekambi?

If Dr. Olanrewaju wants us to believe his cock and bull stories about the performance of the 33 Local Governments under Seyi Makinde, I challenge him to ask his Principal to publish the statement of income and expenditures for the 33 Local Governments in the past seven years plus.

He should give us a breakdown of the total figure of the monthly allocations received on behalf of the 33 Local Governments, the breakdown of salaries and allowances paid, the number of projects executed, identities of the contractors who handled projects, the contract agreements, total figure of the Internally Generated Revenues, IGR received by the Local Governments and the VAT.

In the absence of these vital information, which I am certain they will never dare to make public, I want to humbly suggest that Dr. Olanrewaju should go and update his knowledge about how certain things are done.

Continue Reading

Opinion

Ladoja @82: When the ladder becomes too tall and Makinde’s sin of ingratitude | By Ayinla Joseph

Published

2 weeks ago

on

September 28, 2026

By

The Yoruba say, when a man forgets the ladder that took him to the top of the iroko tree, the fall that awaits him will be narrated as a proverb.

On Thursday, Ibadan stood still for its king. Oba Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja clocked 82. Not 82 years of mere age, but 82 years of bruises, battles, betrayals and benediction. A former Senator. A former Governor. An elder statesman who, like Oduduwa, returned as king. The following day, Friday, Oba Ladoja also clocked one year on the throne of his forefathers.

Ibadan celebrated him. Nigeria celebrated him. The Presidency sent greetings. Former governors knelt. Serving governors bowed. The Alaafin of Oyo paid tribute. The Soun of Ogbomoso poured libation of words. Even the Aseyin, far in Iseyin, bought a full page in a national daily to say: our father lives.

But in Agodi Government House, there was silence. Cold, deliberate, imperial silence.

Governor Seyi Makinde did not felicitate his king. No advert. No statement. No courtesy of any sort extended. Nothing. His protégé, Bimbo Adekanmbi, toed the same line of contempt. For 48 hours, Ibadan people waited for a word that never came, until shame forced a whisper.

We must ask: what manner of politics is this?

In 2019, it was this same Ladoja who held Makinde’s hand when Makinde had no hand to hold. It was Ladoja who coordinated the coalition, who gathered the angry, the broken and the hopeful, and stitched them into a garment called victory for a man who had never won anything before. Without Ladoja, there would have been no Omituntun in 2019. And the man knows it.

Philosophers call it the Paradox of Power. Machiavelli warned about it in “The Prince”: that power acquired through the mercy of others must be sustained by gratitude, otherwise it consumes itself. Plato called such rulers philosopher-kings who failed philosophy. Men who know how to win power but not how to carry it.

History is littered with them.

Emperor Nero of Rome who burnt the city that made him emperor. King Rehoboam in the Bible who told the elders who made him king: “My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s waist.” Emperor Commodus who thought Rome was his father’s farm and turned the palace into a circus until the circus swallowed him.

Seyi Makinde governs like them — as an emperor, not as an Omoluabi. A man who believes loyalty must flow upwards to him, but must never flow downwards from him. He rides on the shoulders of giants and then complains that the giants are too tall.

Today it is Ladoja he snubs. Yesterday it was the Alaafin. The day before, the Soun. Tomorrow, which Oba will taste his disdain? He has transferred his personal hatred for the Olubadan stool into a war against all royal stools in Oyo State. That is not politics. That is poison.

And what shall we say of Bimbo Adekanmbi, his political son, who has learnt this ignoble art of ingratitude so perfectly? The Yoruba say, “the child who says his mother will not sleep, he too will not sleep.” To watch a man seeking to be governor practise contempt for the throne he seeks to govern is a disaster foretold.

Oyo people know Omituntun 2.0 for what it is — a poisonous pill coated with sweet advertisement. If 2.0 can openly humiliate an 82-year-old first-class monarch who made him, what will Omituntun 3.0, headed by his anointed, do? It will be the unkindest cut of all. It will be the complete desecration of the Omoluabi ethos that Ibadan and Oyo hold sacred.

Seyi Makinde will be remembered. Not for the roads that crack before commissioning. Not for the parks that lead to nowhere. He will be remembered as the governor who rode on the backs of eminent men and made every one of them regret that they ever lent him their shoulders.

Ladoja at 82 needs no advert from Agodi to be great. The king’s greatness is not conferred by the governor. But the governor’s smallness is exposed by how he treats his king.

Oyo people, shine your eyes. This affliction must not rise a second time.

Continue Reading

Trending