Oyo Impeachment Crisis: Speaker Admits Inducement Offer, Olubadan and Ajimobi Deny Plot

Oyo State House of Assembly Speaker Adebo Ogundoyin has confirmed he was offered monetary inducement to impeach Governor Seyi Makinde, though he says he declined the offer without hesitation.

The admission, made in a statement on Tuesday, has detonated a political crisis in the state, with the Olubadan of Ibadanland, former First Lady Florence Ajimobi, and the APC all denying involvement in any impeachment plot, and an ex-lawmaker demanding Ogundoyin name names.

“I was offered monetary inducement, but I declined without hesitation because no amount of money can buy my conscience or compromise my loyalty to the Governor, the party, and the people we were elected to serve,” Ogundoyin said. He acknowledged meeting both the Olubadan and Ajimobi’s widow but said the purpose was to seek the monarch’s blessing for his gubernatorial ambition, not to discuss impeachment.

How it started

The crisis went public after the Assembly’s Chief Whip, Gbenga Oyekola, issued a statement revealing that Ogundoyin had been invited by the Olubadan, Oba Rasidi Adewolu Ladoja, and Mrs Florence Ajimobi. Oyekola claimed the Olubadan offered to secure a House of Representatives ticket for the Speaker under the APC, “along with the necessary funds to prosecute the election.”

Oyekola said he was never consulted: “I was never invited, never part of any such meetings or arrangements. I cannot and will not be disloyal to my boss, Governor Seyi Makinde.”

Multiple other lawmakers followed with similar declarations of loyalty, effectively isolating the Speaker and suggesting the House was fracturing.

The denials

The Olubadan, through his media aide Adeola Oloko, warned against dragging the throne into “dirty politics.” The statement was blunt: “You don’t have to be a former governor or distinguished senator to know that a monarch has no power to impeach a local government chairman, let alone a state governor.” The palace also pointed out the irony — former Ekiti Governor Ayodele Fayose had just accused Makinde of plotting to remove the Olubadan, and now the reverse was being alleged. “So who is fooling whom?”

Florence Ajimobi called the claims “entirely false, baseless, and a deliberate act of disinformation,” saying she never attended or convened any meeting about impeachment. The Oyo APC dismissed the entire saga as “a poor script by Makinde.”

Ogundoyin himself, caught in the crossfire, denied that any money changed hands at any meeting, calling the rumours “fabricated to tarnish my image and destabilise the state government.”

The bigger picture

Former Assembly Speaker Adeleke has demanded Ogundoyin identify exactly who offered him money. “Ogundoyin must clarify his comments,” he said, arguing that vague accusations without specifics only fuel speculation.

There are also reports that Ogundoyin himself may face removal as Speaker in the coming days — a remarkable twist for a man who started the week by claiming he was the one who resisted a bribe.

What is clear is that Oyo’s political class is at war with itself, and every faction is denying everything while accusing everyone else. The governor has not spoken publicly. The Assembly is leaking loyalty statements like a sieve. And nobody has produced a single receipt for the alleged inducement.

Sources: Daily Post, Punch, Guardian, Blueprint, The Whistler