TOWARDS solidifying a grand political alliance current being put together in Oyo State ahead of the 2019 general election, a former governor of the state, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, on Thursday, met with his predecessor, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala, behind closed doors.
The meeting, which was held at the Bodija residence of Alao-Akala, had in attendance the only Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) House of Representatives member from the state, Honourable Segun Odebunmi, former Accord state chairman, Alhaji Basir Lawal, Alhaji Ado Marafa and some others.
It was gathered that Alao-Akala was the first Ladoja who was not available to welcome his former deputy and returned the visit when immediately he got back home.
The meeting, Nigerian Tribune gathered, lasted for about two hours, while pictures of the duo having lunch in an atmosphere of camaraderie kept the social media busy.
Although details of the meeting were not made public, Nigerian Tribune gathered it was about neatening the coalition of all opposition parties towards 2019.
Ladoja, in a telephone interview, confirmed to Nigerian Tribune that the purpose of the meeting was to ensure that no one was left behind in the grand coalition he said would end “the rule of amateurs” in the state.
“We are working hard to re-enact the 2003 scenario when we had a rainbow coalition which brought me in as the governor of the state. It is very important that we achieve the 2003 feat in 2019 and we are determined to give it whatever it will take to make it work.
“I went to Alao-Akala’s house because we don’t want to leave him or any other stakeholder behind in reforming the PDP and wresting power in 2019. During our discussion, he was very receptive to the idea. In fact, he agreed with us that APC must go in 2019
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“What remains now is the modality for the coalition and we are working to put that in place. The idea is very popular among the people of Oyo State as well as political stakeholders. I can assure that it will work.
“God sparing our lives, we have a stakeholders’ meeting next week where we will finalise the modality and other necessary arrangements to set sail for the task ahead,” Ladoja said.
Under the leadership of Ladoja, five opposition parties have agreed to solder a rainbow coalition that will be strong enough to challenge the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019.
The parties are Accord, Social Democratic Party (SDP), Labour Party (LP), Alliance for Democracy (AD) and PDP whose platform will be used for the next round of elections.
This came closely on the heels on the visit of the national chairman of PDP, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, to the state to make stakeholders come together and stop APC from profiting from division in the fold of the PDP.
SDP governorship candidate in 2015, Seyi Makinde recently dissolved his structure into the PDP, about a week after Accord took the same step.
In the last two weeks, a series of meetings have been held at the Ondo Street, Bodija residence of Ladoja with stakeholders from the five parties in attendance.
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