A socio-political group, the Ibadan Solidarity Group (ISG) on Sunday berated the Ashipa of Ibadan land and former governor of the state, Senator Rashidi Ladoja over his. Alleged attack on the Olubadan tradition. The group' President, President, Chief Isiaka Aleshinloye,in a statement said the leader of Accord Party in Ibadan described the institution of Ibadan traditional monarchy “a lame duck”$ according to the group, it was unbecoming of someone who was on the ladder of the institution to denigrate the highly-revered institution in such a language.

Apparently reacting to a release issued by the former governor’s spokesman, Mr. Dotun Oyelade as published in a national newspaper on Sunday which said that the former governor of the state’s preference was to become the governor again and not the Olubadan.“We think that statement was uncouth, uncharitable and insulting of the revered chieftaincy institution in Ibadan land and unbecoming of a man who has an eye on becoming the Olubadan to make such disparaging comment about the institution. It, to our mind, is an underscore of the way Senator Ladoja perceives the Olubadan institution. "To say the least, it is an insult on every Ibadan son and daughter,” the group said.

While explaining that it may take well over 20 for Ladoja to become the Olubadan, the Accord Party’s spokesman had said that “the hard reality is that it will be a mistake, if Ladoja jettisons politics for the palace” a statement that the ISG said was tantamount to relegating the revered stool of the Olubadan.

The group said that the statement credited to the former governor underscored the desire of one man to eat his cake and have it, a move it said was contrary to the Olubadan-in-Council’s decision to insulate the traditional institution from the consuming world of dirty politics. “That was why the Olubadan-in-Council decreed a couple of years ago that none of its chiefs must be involved in the murky waters of politics.

In the process of playing politics, the institution of Olubadan would be dragged in the mud and the revered institution would suffer some collateral damage as a result of petty politics and the mudslinging that is associated with playing politics in Nigeria,” said the group.

The group urged the Olubadan to once again make known to the public its

decision on its chiefs dabbling into politics, the group said this would put an end to the tendency to desecrate the institution. The group which berated the choice of words of the Accord Party leader’s spokesman in describing the death of the Olubadan lineage as “indecent and indecorous”, the group said it mirrored the estimation that the Ashipa Olubadan had for the Ibadan traditional rulership institution.

The group also said that the former governor must do everything possible to expedite his trial that is currently at the Appeal Court over alleged embezzlement of N6 billion of the Oyo State people’s fund. ”In any case, the ongoing trial of Senator Ladoja that has dragged on for about seven years now is not in the interest of the tripod of the Oyo State people, the Olubadan-in-Council of which Ladoja is Ashipa and the governorship of the state which he was and is still angling for. Rather than assail us with this insulting epistle, we expected the former governor to be seen struggling to dispense off his ongoing trial at the court,” the group said.