Criminal Politics: Violence, “Godfathers” and Corruption in Nigeria

apparent purpose of creating lists of nonexistent voters. 214 Nigeria’s electoral law
provides for a sentence of up to one year of imprisonment for such malfeasance, but
Adedibu was not held to account in any way. 215 INEC officials publicly confirmed the
incident and blamed the police for failing to investigate the crime. 216 Jonathan
Johnson, the Commissioner of Police in Oyo state at the time, responded to those
complaints by asking rhetorically, “If you hear a rumor and then you call the man and
he says he doesn’t know anything about it, what more can you do about it?” 217
A Lack of Political Will
Echoing the complaints of many other activists and citizens of Oyo State, one
dissident politician told Human Rights Watch that, “Adedibu is there not because
the PDP does not know that he is a criminal but because they need him to win
elections.” 218 President Obasanjo himself dismissed the idea that Adedibu should be
held to account or even made to change his behavior. “Baba has become a dried fish,
he cannot be bent anymore,” Obasanjo said on one occasion. “So let us continue to
manage him.” 219 Then-PDP chairman Ahmadu Ali went further, calling Adedibu the
“commander” of the PDP’s “garrison” in Oyo state in early 2006 and suggesting that
Ladoja should not have accepted the job of Governor if he was not willing to take
orders from Adedibu. 220
The result of this complacent attitude on the part of the federal government is that
Adedibu has enjoyed more than just impunity; the Obasanjo government treated him
as though his capacity to mobilize violence and corruption made him a legitimate
part of the political process in Oyo. Not only has he not been investigated by the
police, but he is assigned a permanent security detail of Mobile Police (MOPOL)
214 Human Rights Watch interview with Alh. I.K. Maigoro, Oyo State INEC office, Ibadan, February 8, 2007. This incident was
widely reported in the Nigerian press.
215 Electoral Act, no. 2 of 2006, sec. 124 (h) and (i).
216 Human Rights Watch interview with Alh. I.K. Maigoro, Oyo State INEC office, Ibadan, February 8, 2007.
217 Human Rights Watch interview with Johnson Johnson, Ibadan, April 26, 2007. Johnson was redeployed away from Oyo
State in July 2007.
218 Human Rights Watch interview, Awka, February 12, 2007.
219 Sola Adeyemo, "Ibadan: Rescue mission for battered city," The Nation, April 9, 2007.
220 See, e.g., “Ali’s New Democracy,” The Vanguard, January 5, 2006.
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