Alliance against APC: Alao-Akala, Lanlehin, Makinde, Alli meet in Ibadan today

Towards the birth of a formidable alliance against the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 9 governorship election in Oyo State, a meeting of four major opposition governorship candidates has been slated to in Ibadan, the state capital, today.

The meeting candidates are a former governor and candidate of the Action Democratic Party (ADP), Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala; African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate, Senator Olufemi Lanlehin; Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Seyi Makinde; and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) candidate, Chief Sharafadeen Alli.

Makinde, Lanlehin, Alli confirmed to the Nigerian Tribune that they were invited to the meeting and would be attending, just as they stressed the need to close ranks to send APC out of government in the state.

Today’s meeting which holds at Alao-Akala’s residence, Nigerian Tribune gathered, was convened by him after his meeting with another former governor and leader of ZLP, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, on Tuesday.

Alao-Akala, during the Tuesday meeting with Ladoja at the latter’s Bodija residence, stressed the need for a coalition of opposition parties to stop APC and Governor Abiola Ajimobi from installing a successor in the state.

Top on the issues to be discussed at the meeting is the need to adopt the opposition party with the best performance in the National Assembly.

The governorship candidate of such party will also be jointly adopted by other candidates

It will be recalled that the ADP governorship candidate had, during a radio interview last month, hinted that the opposition leaders were talking about forging an alliance that will be strong enough to defeat the ruling party.

He had stressed that he was prepared to sacrifice his governorship bid to see the success of the alliance and the enthronement of a coalition government that would put the interest of the people of the state above other interests.

Confirming the development to Nigerian Tribune, Ladoja said Alao-Akala met with him on Tuesday and spoke about the need for him (Ladoja) to convene a meeting of all major governorship candidates to explore the possibility of adopting one person to square up with the APC candidate.

“I told him that since he is one of them, he should be the one to call the meeting and he agreed with me. He said since all parties will be busy with putting finishing touches, he would call the meeting for Friday (today).

“From what I know, the purpose of the meeting is to extract commitment from the candidates that the party that performs best among the major parties will be adopted for the governorship election.

“In the interest of the suffering people of Oyo State, there is the need for the opposition to come together and rescue the people from a government that does not give a damn about their welfare. We also must not allow Ajimobi to supplant himself,” Ladoja said.

In 2015 when a similar move was made among opposition candidates after the first election, an agreement could not be reached on which party and candidate to adopt after preliminary discussion favoured the adoption of Ladoja of Accord.

But Alao-Akala told Nigerian Tribune that the opposition leaders are determined to ensure that the 2015 experience would not repeat itself, in the interest of the people of the state.

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