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The governorship candidates of the Labour Party (LP), Accord, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State – Adebayo Alao-Akala, Rashidi Ladoja and Teslim Folarin – respectively are concluding plans to meet over the April 11 governorship election.
Ladoja and Alao-Akala had already resolved to work together since the beginning of the month but agreed to wait for the outcome of the National Assembly elections to assess the strength of each party in order to pave way for a smooth alliance.
But the results of the election, which jolted both parties as well as the PDP, forced them to reopen negotiations immediately, with the PDP indicating interest in joining the alliance for the governorship election.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) had won the three senatorial seats in the state as well as 12 out of 14 House of Representatives seats, leaving only one to the PDP and the other to LP. Both are in Ogbomoso land
Just as a reliable source had earlier hinted our correspondent, a meeting was Monday evening held at Ladoja’s home in Bodija, Ibadan. In attendance were the Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory,Oloye Jumoke Akinjide, the State Governorship candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Sen Teslim Folarin, his Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate, Engr Seyi Makinde, deputy governorship candidate of Labour Party, Alh Sarafadeen Alli, former deputy governor of the state, Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja and Sen Ayo Adeseun.
The source had confided in our correspondent that the meeting was to work out the nature of the alliance. It did not disclose what party that initiated the meeting but pointed out that “what matters is the alliance to be formed. All I know is that Governor Ajimobi is not returning.”
Newspeakonline was at Ladoja’s home where he addressed journalists after the meeting. He denied teaming up with other members of the opposition in the state to dislodge the APC.
His words: “They all came to my house to seek my advice on what happened during the Saturday polls. They share similar views with me on it and they also came to the conclusion that the election should be cancelled”
Ladoja stressed that his party agrees with the calls for cancellation because there were ‘electoral irregularities” in the Presidential and national Assembly elections held in the state.