Ex-Oyo governor, Ladoja, dumps ADC for Zenith Labour Party

After weeks of speculation, former governor of Oyo State, Rasidi Adewolu Ladoja on Thursday officially announced his defection from African Democratic Congress (ADC) to Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
Ladoja had last weekend allegedly instructed his loyalists to dump the ADC and join Zenith Labour Party.
But addressing journalists in Ibadan yesterday at his Ibadan Ondo Street residence Thursday morning, Ladoja made his official defection announcement to Zenith Labour Party.
The former governor, while addressing the journalists, said the way ADC was going, it may not be able to win the gubernatorial election in 2019 and the fact that most of the decision makers in ADC “were invisible” made him to leave ADC.  Flanked by the gubernatorial candidate of the Zenith Labour Party in the state, Sharafadeen Abiodun Alli and scores of his supporters who thronged his house as early as 7:00 a.m, he further said that the way the ADC was going, its leaders would not be responsible for the decision they made because “those who are making decision in ADC are invisible”.
According to him, “the inability of the leaders of ADC to carry along all the major towns, groups and zones in the state such as the people of Ibarapa zone, Kajola, Itesiwaju and Iwajowa along is another reason responsible for our defection from ADC to Zenith Labour Party.
“Most people who are making decisions in ADC are invisible, they are not visible. You can’t see them. That means that they will not be responsible for the decisions they make,” he said.
“I told you that my apprehension, my apprehension was that the way we are going we might not be able to win the elections because there are some areas that were not catered for. I told you about some areas in Ibarapa that were not catered for and we have been talking, so on the last day, the Zenith Labour Party, they decided that look, they can’t bear it anymore and they decided that they are going to field Barrister Sharafadeen Abiodun Alli as the gubernatorial candidate of the party. They sought my consent.
“We are formally in ADC; I am now in Zenith Labour Party. We have been on it for the past three months. The crisis in ADC was unwarranted. The last straw that broke the camel’s back was the choice of the deputy. When I got the information in the social media, I called Femi Lanlehin and he said he did not know anything about how the deputy was picked. I called Babalaje, Chief Koleoso, are you aware? He said he was not consulted. And I said this cannot hold. It is just courtesy that if you are going to work with me I should be involved in your things,” he said.
Ladoja, who said that he chose his deputy, Adebayo Alao-Akala, in 2003 and not that he (Alao-Akala) was imposed on him, said it would be wrong to choose a deputy for a governor-to-be, stressing that if a deputy was picked for a governor-to-be, they would run a parallel government because they would be representing two interests at the detriment of the people.
“I chose Otunba Alao-Akala myself. So he was not imposed on me. I said the way we were going, if we are not very careful, we are going to run parallel government when we get there because your deputy emerged without your consent. So, he will say I am representing my group, you are representing your group; so that is not good for governance.”
While assuring that the Zenith Labour Party remains the party to beat even though it is coming few months to the elections, he said: “By the grace of God, we will win; you know that the candidate himself is not sleeping; you have the candidate and people’s goodwill in the state. I still believe that by the grace of God, we will still win in this party”.

Akinremi Feyisipo, Ibadan