Ajimobi sues Ladoja’s aide, Guardian Newspaper for N1b over publication on Mokola Flyover

Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State (right), Chairman, Oyo State Agency for Youth Development, Hon. Olugbenga Olayemi (centre) and the Secretary to Oyo State Government, Alhaji Waheed Akin Olajide (left) at the 2013 International Youth Week Celebrations held at the Cultural Centre, Ibadan recently.


Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State has dragged a national daily, The Guardian Newspaper and an aide to former Governor Rashidi Ladoja, one Lanre Ogundipe, to court, demanding N1 billion damages over a publication on the newly-inaugurated flyover at the Mokola area of Ibadan, the state capital.

The two other persons sued by the governor for the publication were Alhaji Lukman Akinpelu and A. O. Adepoju.

Senator Ladoja, who contested the 2011 governorship election with Governor Ajimobi and lost, and who is warming up for another gubernatorial contest in 2015, has of recent been having a running battle with the governor over the construction of the flyover.

The former governor has launched serial attacks on the Ajimobi administration, on the flyover, which is the flagship project of the governor and the first to be constructed by any civilian administration in the last 35 years in the state.

But, The Guardian Newspaper had in its Wednesday edition published a letter titled ``Mismanagement of the scarce financial resources of Oyo State: Scandalous contract sum’’, and written by an Oyo Anti-Corruption Group signed by aides to Governor Ladoja, Lanre Ogundipe, among others..

However, Governor Ajimobi, in a statement issued in Ibadan on Wednesday viewed the publication as libelous, and that he had instructed his lawyers to demand for the sum of N1 billion as damages.