Ladoja To Meet Obasanjo as ADC Wins New Converts in Oyo

Former Governor and leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, is leaving the party for ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo's wave-making African Democratic Congress (ADC) in a grand alliance underscoring a fierce battle ahead of the 2019 general election.

Ladoja, it was learnt last night, was to meet Obasanjo in Ota on Tuesday but for the meeting between Obasanjo and ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.

The meeting would hold tomorrow with Ladoja leading three of the governorship aspirants of the PDP into the ADC. The aspirants are a former Senator Femi Lanlehin; a former Secretary to the State Government in Ladoja's administration, Chief Sharafadeen Abiodun Alli, and a former council boss and varsity don, Dr. Nureni Adeniran.

Also to attend the meeting with Ladoja are the 16 of the 32 serving members of the state House of Assembly comprising lawmakers elected on the platform of the APC (5), Accord (7), Labour Party (3), and the recently elected PDP lawmaker, Debo Ogundoyin, are all part of the grand coalition.

It was learnt that the former governor’s decision to leave the PDP is occasioned by the refusal of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) to honour its promise to reverse the controversial harmonisation of the party’s state executive done at the instance of a governorship aspirant, Seyi Makinde.

A displeased Ladoja had threatened to quit the party should the insertion of unelected people in the list of state executive be allowed to stay, prompting a delegation of the NWC to visit Ladoja in Ibadan on June 27.

The delegation, which was led by the deputy national chairman (South), Elder Yemi Akinwonmi, begged Ladoja to stay in PDP and assured him that the decision would be reversed.

It was gathered that the NWC reneged on its promise to Ladoja, a development that angered him and other leaders in the party, prompting the decision to quit the PDP.

Another top politician who doubles as a former Secretary to State Government, Chief Michael Koleoso, who leads other Second Republic progressive leaders in the state, in the formation of a grand coalition against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019 elections and a host of other men of progressives bloc are neckdeep in the alliance with Ladoja.

The former governor and Koleoso are “seriously contemplating” using the African Democratic (ADC),  which is already home to majority of the Unity Forum members, who broke away from the APC as a result of irreconcilable differences.

It was gathered that about four other opposition parties are part of the grand coalition which is being built under the leadership of Ladoja and Koleoso.

Ladoja, it was gathered, has called a meeting of his loyalists across the 33 local government councils for Friday at his residence, where they are expected to formally announce their exit from the PDP.