N4.7bn Fraud: Ladoja Bribed Lawmakers with Cars to Escape Impeachment – Witness

Ladipo Sanusi

A witness of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Adewale Atanda, on Thursday, informed a Federal High Court, Lagos, how former governor of Oyo State, Senator Rasheed Ladoja, bought 22 vehicles for the 22 members of the state assembly to prevent his impeachment in 2005.

The witness, however, told the court that only 14 of the vehicles were given out to Ladoja’s loyalists in the assembly, while the remaining eight were shared among members of the former governor’s family.

Atanda, a political associate of the former governor, is the second witness to give evidence in the trial.

Ladoja is being tried alongside a former Commissioner of Finance in the state, Mr. Waheed Akanbi, on a N4.7 billion fraud charge.

In the charge sheet, marked FHC/L/336c/2008, the EFCC alleged that both Ladoja and his co-accused conspired to convert properties and resources derived from an illegal act, with the intention of concealing their illicit origin.

The pair are facing an 8-count charge of money laundering, which is contrary to Section 17(a) and punishable under Section 14(1) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004.

The witness stated that when he got wind of the plot to impeach Ladoja, he advised him to buy the 22 vehicles, which they would give to the 22 loyal members of the state assembly to secure their support.

Atanda said he secured a loan of N80 million from Wema Bank to purchase the vehicles, using his personal assets as guarantee, when the Commissioner for Finance could not raise the money from the state’s purse.

He stated that after Ladoja was eventually impeached, he convened a meeting with the 14 lawmakers loyal to him and other political associates at his (Atanda’s) hotel, on Victoria Island, Lagos.

At the meeting, the lawmakers requested Ladoja to be paying them one million naira each, while the team of lawyers that handled the appeal against the impeachment at the State High Court also increased their fees from N50 million to N350 million, due to the possibility of the case going as far as the Supreme Court, the witness further disclosed.

He said due to the enormous financial pressure on the former governor, he (witness) approached his bank, Lagoon Savings and Loan, for another N50 million loan, which he used his landed property on VIctoria Island to guarantee.

He stated that after securing the loan, he issued a cheque of N35 million to the lead firm of lawyers that handled the impeachment matter in December 2006.

He disclosed further that after Ladoja was reinstated by the Supreme Court, the Commissioner for Commerce briefed the governor and the executive council how the interim governor, Alao Akala, entered an agreement with Churchgate Group to supply 10,000 bags of rice to the state for sale to the public. He said the rice was later rejected because it was too expensive.

He said the government also discovered that a commercial bank provided guarantee and collateral for the purchase of the rice and in exchange for which Akala’s regime pledged the state’s shares in companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

He said upon this discovery, Ladoja’s administration consulted a team of lawyers that advised the government to challenge Akala’s action in court, since his (Akala’s) government had been declared illegal by implication of the Supreme Court judgment on the impeachment.

According to him, the state government, eventually, filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Lagos, which ruled that the agreement entered into by Akala’s administration was unlawful and Illegal and, consequently, ordered the evacuation of the rice.

The witness could, however, not complete his testimony due to insufficient time, with the trial judge adjourning till March 27 and 31 for continuation of trial.

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