A former Oyo State governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala has rejoined the All Progressive Congress (APC) after meeting with the national leader of the party, B
A former Oyo State governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala has rejoined the All Progressive Congress (APC) after meeting with the national leader of the party, Bola Tinubu. The former governor left the party in October 2018, after the governorship primaries that didn’t go his way.
But yesterday, Alao-Akala paid a visit to the national leader of the APC, in the company of his wife, Oluwakemi Alao-Akala; his son, Olamiju and the Director General of his campaign, Wale Ohu, at Bourdillon. The former governor had asked to be given time to make a formal statement on the meeting with the APC national leader.
Sources close to the two politicians revealed that it was at the instance of the former Lagos state governor, Tinubu, the meeting was initiated after the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, won the presidential election in the state. A source close to Tinubu, who does not want his name in print, said Ajimobi’s defeat showed that the people of Oyo State could vote against the APC candidate, Adebayo Adelabu.
The source said, “Tinubu and Alao-Akala met on Tuesday. Tinubu asked Alao-Akala, who has many supporters in Ogbomoso, to collapse his structure into that of Adelabu. We know that if Alao-Akala was in our camp, there was no way Atiku would have had such a good outing in Oyo State, especially Ogbomoso. The PDP governorship candidate, Seyi Makinde, is popular and he is also an Ibadan guy like Adelabu, which means that they will both split the votes in Ibadan. The APC will need to forge an alliance with elements in Ogbomoso to get an advantage.”
When asked why the APC did not forge an alliance with Alao-Akala before now, the source said they would have done so but Governor Ajimobi told them that there was no need to worry. He added, “We knew that the people were not too happy with the governor as far back as June 2018 when the PDP candidate, Adebo Ogundoyin, won Ibarapa-East Constituency by-election which was held to fill the vacant position created by the death of former speaker of the House of Assembly, Michael Adeyemo. Alao-Akala had made some demands but Ajimobi did not play the politics right. Also, Ajimobi’s decision to convert some chiefs to full monarchs was unpopular among many people.”
You may recall that just last week, Alao-Akala’s son, Olamijuwon was removed as the Executive Chairman, Ogbomoso North Local Government and in his place, the former Vice Chairman, Abas Bello, sworn in an acting capacity. His sin? Olamijuwon who was elected on May 12 on the platform of APC, alongside some of his councillors defected to the ADP to support his father’s ambition who was seeking to be governor a second time.
