BUT for the visit of former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to Ibadan where he held a closed-door meeting with former governor of Oyo State, Senator Rashidi Ladoja on his impending return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), lawmakers on the ticket of the umbrella party in the state House of Assembly would have been further depleted.
Sunday Tribune learnt that four of the 10 PDP lawmakers in the House had concluded arrangements to defect to the Accord funded and run by Senator Ladoja.
The four lawmakers are from Ogbomosho zone where former governor Adebayo Alao-Akala hails from.
The grouse of the lawmakers was the “fraudulent” manner the party executive slots allotted Senator Ladoja about a month ago after a stakeholders’ meeting were substituted with loyalists of two leaders of a faction in the party, with the assistance of some officials at the national headquarters of the party in Abuja.
But the news of Obasanjo’s visit to Ladoja to smoothen rough edges in the negotiation for his re-joining the PDP stalled the planned defection of the lawmakers from the PDP.
It was gathered that they were waiting for the implementation of the decisions arrived at during Obasanjo’s meeting with Ladoja.
One of the lawmakers looked in at the meeting and condemned the portrayal of Ladoja as a politician whose clout is restricted to Ibadan by those he called “self-seeking and unpopular” leaders of the party.
Meanwhile, efforts to bring back Senator Ladoja to the PDP fold in the state heightened Friday, as the only serving PDP Senator in the Southwest and chieftain of the party in the state, Hosea Agboola; former Senate Leader, Teslim Folarin and a member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Muraina Ajibola, visited him to perfect the return moves of the former governor.
Sunday Tribune gathered that the trio was in Senator Ladoja’s house on the instruction of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who had earlier visited the politician as part of the reconciliation efforts.
The former president, Sunday Tribune gathered, instructed party leaders in the state that everything should be done to ensure that the structure on the ground for Senator Ladoja’s return was not destabilised by the polarisation and power struggle among the leaders.
However, facts also emerged weekend that the reconciliation efforts nothwithstanding, Senator Ladoja may eventually not return to the party.
Sunday Tribune reliably gathered that some extraneous factors, both within and outside the party, would finally inform the decision of the former governor of the state on the issue.
A source within the Oyo PDP disclosed that while Ladoja was willing to pitch his tent with PDP, political expediencies may prevent him from doing so.
According to the source, although the former governor had been convinced of the genuine intention of some prominent leaders to have him back in the party, his commitment to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) might be a major impediment against his rejoining PDP.
Among other issues, Sunday Tribune learnt that the ruling party had substantially met up with the terms of agreement it had with Ladoja.
“In the wake of the renewed reconciliation process within the Oyo PDP and the efforts at wooing him back into the party, Senator Ladoja has been holding series of meetings with some political stakeholders within and outside the party to weigh his chances and options available to him.
“Consequent upon his recent meeting with Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State, the ACN leadership had finally acceded to most of the demands by Ladoja.
“With Aregbesola’s intervention, Ladoja has been given four special advisers, two commissioner slots and appointments into 21 boards, agencies and parastatals in the state, while his loyalists are also being considered for the position of caretaker chairmen in five local councÍls within the Ibadan metropolis.
“The five councils, I can authoritatively tell you, include Oluyole, Ona-Ara, Egbeda, Lagelu and Ibadan North-East where he won a large number of votes in the 2011 gubernatorial election in the state”, the source said.
The source also disclosed that Ladoja was playing a reasonable and pragmatic politics with the interest of his loyalists uppermost in his mind.
In another development, a pressure group within the PDP, Synergy League, has thrown its weight behind the comeback bid of former Governor Ladoja, saying it was the way for the party to reclaim electoral victory in 2015.
In a release signed by Prince Dotun Oyelade, the group said those who have reservations about Ladoja’s imminent return should be realistic and think of what is best for the party rather than their individual quests for party leadership
Sunday Tribune learnt that four of the 10 PDP lawmakers in the House had concluded arrangements to defect to the Accord funded and run by Senator Ladoja.
The four lawmakers are from Ogbomosho zone where former governor Adebayo Alao-Akala hails from.
The grouse of the lawmakers was the “fraudulent” manner the party executive slots allotted Senator Ladoja about a month ago after a stakeholders’ meeting were substituted with loyalists of two leaders of a faction in the party, with the assistance of some officials at the national headquarters of the party in Abuja.
But the news of Obasanjo’s visit to Ladoja to smoothen rough edges in the negotiation for his re-joining the PDP stalled the planned defection of the lawmakers from the PDP.
It was gathered that they were waiting for the implementation of the decisions arrived at during Obasanjo’s meeting with Ladoja.
One of the lawmakers looked in at the meeting and condemned the portrayal of Ladoja as a politician whose clout is restricted to Ibadan by those he called “self-seeking and unpopular” leaders of the party.
Meanwhile, efforts to bring back Senator Ladoja to the PDP fold in the state heightened Friday, as the only serving PDP Senator in the Southwest and chieftain of the party in the state, Hosea Agboola; former Senate Leader, Teslim Folarin and a member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Muraina Ajibola, visited him to perfect the return moves of the former governor.
Sunday Tribune gathered that the trio was in Senator Ladoja’s house on the instruction of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who had earlier visited the politician as part of the reconciliation efforts.
The former president, Sunday Tribune gathered, instructed party leaders in the state that everything should be done to ensure that the structure on the ground for Senator Ladoja’s return was not destabilised by the polarisation and power struggle among the leaders.
However, facts also emerged weekend that the reconciliation efforts nothwithstanding, Senator Ladoja may eventually not return to the party.
Sunday Tribune reliably gathered that some extraneous factors, both within and outside the party, would finally inform the decision of the former governor of the state on the issue.
A source within the Oyo PDP disclosed that while Ladoja was willing to pitch his tent with PDP, political expediencies may prevent him from doing so.
According to the source, although the former governor had been convinced of the genuine intention of some prominent leaders to have him back in the party, his commitment to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) might be a major impediment against his rejoining PDP.
Among other issues, Sunday Tribune learnt that the ruling party had substantially met up with the terms of agreement it had with Ladoja.
“In the wake of the renewed reconciliation process within the Oyo PDP and the efforts at wooing him back into the party, Senator Ladoja has been holding series of meetings with some political stakeholders within and outside the party to weigh his chances and options available to him.
“Consequent upon his recent meeting with Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State, the ACN leadership had finally acceded to most of the demands by Ladoja.
“With Aregbesola’s intervention, Ladoja has been given four special advisers, two commissioner slots and appointments into 21 boards, agencies and parastatals in the state, while his loyalists are also being considered for the position of caretaker chairmen in five local councÍls within the Ibadan metropolis.
“The five councils, I can authoritatively tell you, include Oluyole, Ona-Ara, Egbeda, Lagelu and Ibadan North-East where he won a large number of votes in the 2011 gubernatorial election in the state”, the source said.
The source also disclosed that Ladoja was playing a reasonable and pragmatic politics with the interest of his loyalists uppermost in his mind.
In another development, a pressure group within the PDP, Synergy League, has thrown its weight behind the comeback bid of former Governor Ladoja, saying it was the way for the party to reclaim electoral victory in 2015.
In a release signed by Prince Dotun Oyelade, the group said those who have reservations about Ladoja’s imminent return should be realistic and think of what is best for the party rather than their individual quests for party leadership
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