>
Stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo state met in Ibadan on Thursday resolving to further coalition talks with other opposition parties in the state ahead of the 2019 general elections.
The party men also resolved to build on the Supreme Court judgement that made Senator Ahmed Makarfi authentic party Chairman by reconciling all warring factions and aggrieved members.
The meeting convened by a former Senate deputy whip, Senator Hosea Agboola a.k.a Alleluyah, had prominent members of the state PDP in attendance.
The presence of leaders and members of other political parties in the state advanced the determination of the political parties to form a coalition to battle the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
While former governorship aspirant on the platform of Social Democratic Party (SDP), Engr. Seyi Makinde and former governor, Chief Adebayo Alao Akala, currently in the APC, sent representatives to the meeting, Chairman of the All People’s Democratic Alliance (APDA), Hon. Yemi Taiwo and several others where in attendance.
Some of the PDP stakeholders who attended include: the immediate past state chairman, Hon. Yinka Taiwo; a former speaker of the state House of Assembly, Hon. Jelili Adeleke; former members of the House of Representatives Hon. Jimoh Afeez, Mrs. Funmi Orisadey.
Others are Alhaji Adebisi Olopoenia, Hon. Jacob Adetoro leading the Oke Ogun zone and a former state chairman of Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Mr. Demola Ojo.
When contacted, SDP State Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Akeem Azeez, who did not deny the representation of his party flagbearer at the PDP meeting, stressed that Makinde had not defected to the PDP but was “in the forefront of coalition of opposition parties in oyo state and beyond to form an alliance to field a joint candidate for Gubernatorial election in 2019.
READ: Seyi Makinde: SDP to form coalition with Ladoja, others, to defeat APC in 2019
Senator Agboola said that the meeting was as in line with decisions reached at the last PDP National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held in Abuja which mandated that all warring factions be brought back into the umbrella party.
He disclosed that the leadership of the party was in talks with the likes of Makinde and former governors Akala and Rashidi Ladoja as well as other decampees to come back to the PDP.
The state former chairman of the PDP, Hon Yinka Taiwo described the recent decamping of members of the Ali Modu Sheriff faction to the Mega Party of Nigeria, as a move would not last
He denied belonging to any faction in the party and stressed that in a matter of months, all aggrieved members would be reunited with other members.
Olopoenia who also addresed the stakeholder, appealed to all the members to renew their committment, bury their hatchet and continue to imbibe the spirit of brotherliness irrespective of factions or group.