Posted by By YINKA FABOWALE, Ibadan on
An end may be in sight to the bitter feud rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State as the major actors in the dispute, Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala and his estranged predecessor in office, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, met in private in Ibadan and agreed to work out a plan to see the Ladoja faction reintegrated into the mainstream of the party.
An end may be in sight to the bitter feud rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State as the major actors in the dispute, Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala and his estranged predecessor in office, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, met in private in Ibadan and agreed to work out a plan to see the Ladoja faction reintegrated into the mainstream of the party.
The parley, the first since the two men parted ways in the wake of the illegal impeachment of Ladoja, which saw Akala in the saddle for 11 months before the former was reinstated, was brokered by the PDP reconciliation committee led by the party's former deputy national chaiman, Shuaib Oyedokun.
Although the former governor had always maintained that he and his followers were still members of the party, the leadership of the party in the state had purportedly expelled them for alleged anti-party activities, in view of their perceived romance with other opposition parties, namely the Labour Party, All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) and the Action Congress, particularly during the last elections held in the state.
In fact, Ladoja's support for the opposition came to the fore when after the governorship election, he was reported as saying that the ANPP candidate, Abiola Ajimobi, won the poll.
At the hearing of the reconciliation panel the incumbent governor had stressed that Ladoja and other members of his faction would have to join the party again at the ward level, if they were still interested in being members of the party.
But following mediation and appeals by the panel members, Akala softened whereupon the Tuesday meeting was arranged.
Daily Sun gathered that the meeting was an explosive and frank one in which the duo openly vented their grievances. Ladoja reportedly accused his former deputy of having a hand in his illegal removal, while the latter charged him for working against his election, arguing that he on his own contributed largely to Ladoja's electoral victory in 2003, with the block votes he received from his home region of Ogbomoso. That Ladoja denied, contending that it was only Ibadan people that did.
At the end, the meeting, which was attended by the Chief of Staff to the governor, Dr Saka Balogun, and few unnamed Ladoja's supporters, resolved to raise an elders committee to work out the procedure and modalities for the admission of the splinter group.
Membership of the committee to which both groups were to name five persons each could not immediately be ascertained, but Daily Sun learnt that it was to be headed by the Secretary to the State Government, Chief Layiwola Olakojo. Also nominated on the government side were Dr Balogun and former governor of the state, Chief Kolapo Ishola.
Ladoja could not be reached for comments on the development, as he travelled abroad the following day. His spokesman, Bashiru Latinwo said while he could not speak definitively on the matter, it was 'a welcome development, if is true."
Also, the former secretary to the state government under Ladoja, Mr Dele Adigun, told Daily Sun: 'I am not confirming or denying anything. But Ladoja and Akala working together should not be a surprise. Akala has always been a Ladoja boy. It was only when the man at Ota and his garrison commander here stepped in between them that there was crisis and disagreement. To me, it is a welcome development."