Florence Ajimobi, ex-Oyo first lady and Nigeria's ambassador to Austria, has dismissed talk that she bankrolled moves to unseat Governor Seyi Makinde. In a Tuesday statement from her media office, she branded the claim "entirely false, baseless, and a deliberate act of disinformation," insisting she never met lawmakers in Lagos or elsewhere to hatch any impeachment plan.
"At no time did I convene, attend, or participate in any such meeting with any individual or group for the purpose of discussing impeachment or destabilizing the Oyo State Government," the statement read. Ajimobi said the rumour was cooked up to drag her into the Peoples Democratic Party's affairs in the state, warning that continuing to circulate the tale could spark litigation. She restated her focus on humanitarian work and urged the public to ignore the story.
The rebuttal lands days after the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja, also denied involvement in any plot against Makinde, stressing that a monarch lacks constitutional power to remove a governor.
Florence Ajimobi's 486-word denial is itself a signal that the impeachment whispers have travelled far enough to threaten her hard-won diplomatic perch in Vienna. When a former first lady needs two pages to swear she never opened her purse or her sitting room to restless lawmakers, the political temperature in Oyo has already crossed the comfort line.
The background music here is the 2027 arithmetic. Makinde, a first-term governor on the PDP platform, is quietly rounding up support for a second term in a state where the APC still controls a sizeable bloc of the House. Any hint that Abuja-posted opposition figures are shopping for wavering legislators revives memories of 2018, when speaker impeachments in Oyo swapped chairs faster than a game of musical statues.
For ordinary residents, the fuss means little beyond louder radio arguments and the possibility that constituency projects could stall while lawmakers calculate which side of the gavel looks safer. Traders in Oje and Challenge who rely on state-funded market upgrades may find their representatives suddenly unavailable, busy caucusing in Ibadan hotels rather than attending budget hearings.
More broadly, the story fits a pattern in South-West politics: incumbents cry "external plot" the moment their approval wobbles, while out-of-office elites use well-funded rebuttals to keep their local brand alive without contesting an actual election. The real loser is governance, suspended between accusation and denial while potholes deepen and school roofs still leak.
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