There are many who did not know much about Alhaji Lamidi Ariyibi Adedibu, who would continued to be remembered in the political history of Oyo State, even 9 years after he left the earth, at age 80.
As the late strongman clocked 9 years in the grave, InsideOyo.com compiled some amazing things you did not know about him. Read below
1) He was born on October 24, 1927.
2) He did not bear his father’s name -Adeduntan; all the names attributed to him were his first names.
3) He was from Olupoyi Ruling House of Oja-Oba, Ibadan.
4) He joined politics in 1950s, when he became a member of the Ibadan People’s Party, and then joined the Action Group under Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
5) He later joined National Party of Nigeria (NPN) led by Chiefs Adisa Akinloye and Richard Akinjide.
6) He practised a kind of politics described by politicians as a blend of populism and raw thuggery that often compelled either violent loyalty or violent opposition.
7) There are five buildings and halls inside his Molete reidence.
8) There is a spiralling staircase that connects the ground and top floors, held together by 28 pillars.
9) Within the compound are Arabic letters on relief, etched against a black background.
10) A road separates this house of prayer from a row of one, two and three-storey buildings painted in the national colours of green-white-green.
11) The compound itself has been so expanded that one could see the Molete bridge at a distance.
12) In one of the halls, there are portraits of great politicians like Alhaji Adegoke Adelabu, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief Adisa Akinloye, among others.
13) On the outside wall of the hall are portraits of late politicians like Adegoke Adelabu, Ladoke Akintola, Obafemi Awolowo, Tafawa Balewa and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.
14) Adedibuwas also a very religious person.
16) The first structure that catches the attention of any visitor is the one-storey central Mosque which has four minarets, each with the star and crescent symbol of Islam. One of these has a megaphone through which the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer.
17) He single-handedly built 15 mosques within the Ibadan metropolis, including the one inside his Molete mansion.
18) Anyone who entered Adedibu’s compound with tears came out with joy and laughter.
19) His grave stood opposite the main building, the top floor, from which he dished out orders in his lifetime.
20) He left two houses as “he was someone who didn’t believe in stockpiling belongings; he gave some of his valuables out to those he felt needed them the most.”
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21) Few days after he died, about 95 mattresses, probably used by the politician’s army of supporters and thugs, were dumped in a heap in an open space.
22) During his lifetime, there were over 100 vehicles when. Among them were a blue modern Volkswagen Beetle, grey Peugeot saloon, a Pajero jeep, a white Nissan pick-up van, blue 505 Peugeot and an Oyo State House of Assembly Coaster bus. Also in the fleet was the grey Chevrolet Express with registration number Oyo AE 85AYT, with which the Oyo State House of Assembly’s mace was confiscated by Adedibu and his hoodlums
23) There is a court in Adedibu’s compound where he receives visitors and dispenses justice. Arranged in two rows were 13 leather settees, seven black leather-top centre tables and a giant “port-a-cool” fan, enclosed in a mammoth wooden structure that looks like an abandoned high-definition television box.
24) In his house, while alive, there is a hall where Adedibu’s politics, which respects no ideological categories, is on display through photographs, plaques and other memorabilia.
25) Inside the hall are photographs of Adedibu’s moments with other politicians like Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State, President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Senate President Adolphus Wabara, the late Chief MKO Abiola, General Buba Marwa and others.
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26) In this hall, there is a photograph showing a publisher of a national daily presenting an award to Adedibu, for “political consistency.” Closely linked to this is a plaque, presented by Alhaji and Alhaja Kasali Ajani, congratulating Adedibu on his honour as “the most consistent politician in Nigeria.”
27) When alive, pigeons fed on remnants of the previous night’s feast just as over 15 rams and 10 cows roamed freely, grazing and chewing the cud at a section.
28) Adedibu died on 11th June 2008, at the University College Hospital in Ibadan.
29) Before he died, he was the Ekarun of Ibadan
30) He would have become Olubadan if were alive.
