Oyo PDP peace talks suffer setback as Ladoja pulls out

Ladoja

The ongoing talks between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former Oyo State Governor, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, yesterday broke down as the latter pulled out of the arrangement to return to the party.
This came as factions within the party threatened to hold parallel congresses, following inability to harmonize interests across party leaders in the state. 
A group, the Oyo State PDP Stakeholders, called for the postponement of the congress yesterday, alleging that a faction had hijacked the transparent process.
Reports had confirmed that Ladoja had returned to his former party after President Goodluck Jonathan and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo invited and persuaded him to return to the PDP.  The state chapter of the party also stated that the former governor had returned to its fold.
But the Accord Party (AP) under the leadership of Ladoja yesterday announced that it had pulled out of the talks with the PDP due to what it described as insincerity and lack of genuine commitment to the ideals of democracy by the Oyo State chapter of the party. 
The state Chairman of the AP and the Director-General of the Ladoja Campaign Organization, Alhaji Bashir Lawal and Hon. Adeolu Adeleke respectively, told reporters yesterday that the party at a stakeholders’ meeting held at Ondo Street, Bodija home of Ladoja earlier yesterday resolved to terminate further negotiations with the PDP. Though they affirmed that future negotiations were not foreclosed and that the AP had nothing personal against the PDP, they argued that the Oyo State chapter of the PDP is so factionalized that it can not harmonize the various centrifugal interests that would ultimately help it win election and offer good governance.
The stakeholders’ group, led by former Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon. Asimiyu Alarape, alleged that the process of the congress had been manipulated, arguing that the consequences of the manipulation portends danger for the future of the party and reconciliatory efforts taken so far. It insisted that the congress would witnesses parallel elections should the national leadership fail to heed its appeal.