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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), working towards reinventing itself to challenge the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019, extending a hand to its former chieftain, former Oyo State Governor, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, who is now the national leader of Accord Party.
On Sunday, the Chairman of the 85-member PDP Strategy Review and Inter-Party Affairs Committee, Professor Jerry Gana had a closed door meeting with Ladoja and other Accord Party leaders.
Gana was accompanied to the meeting by the Lagos State governorship candidate of the party in the 2015 elections, Mr Jimi Agbaje. The meeting held at the Bodija residence of Ladoja, lasting about three hours.
Ladoja’s men at the meeting included Senator Femi Lanlehin; Barrister Bayo Lawal; Chief Bayo Lawal; Professor Tunde Ayeleru; Honourable Fatai Adesina; Nureni Adisa; Alhaji Bashir Lawal and Dr Nureni Adeniran.
It would be recalled that in November 2016, Anambra State governor, Willie Obiano, sent a delegation of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) led by Ambassdor Bianca Ojukwu and a former Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, to discuss an alliance with Ladoja in Ibadan.
Professor Gana who spoke to journalists after the meeting on Sunday, said his committee was pursuing one of its objectives which is to “touch base in a realistic with prime movers and genuine democrats who were solidly part of the PDP.”
He said there was need for all genuine democrats to unite and rescue Nigeria from the inepitude of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 general election.
The former Minister of Information stressed Ladoja and other democrats across party lines in the country needed to come together in the interest of sustainable democracy, peace, security and good governance in the country.
His words: “We are here to really convey our good wish to Senator Rashidi Ladoja who, though is a key leader in Accord, is one of the founding fathers of the PDP. We are touching base with genuine democrats, those who really wish democracy well in Nigeria. We have come with a very clear message that all democrats must unite”
On the current leadership crisis rocking the PDP, Gana said he was sure that the pending judgment of the Appellate Court on the leadership tussle in the party would clear all doubts about the authentic leadership of the party.
According to him, 95 per cent of the party’s leaders were on the same page as the crisis in the party was being blown out of proportion.
Newspeakonline however gathered that while Jerry Gana believes that PDP would be re-invented after his committee completes its work without any position on change of party name, Ladoja and his men believe that if the party was to attract “genuine democrats”, the name “Peoples Democratic Party” would have to be changed.