Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan

The stage is now set for major opposition political parties in Oyo State to chose a consensus governorship candidate with a view to recording electoral victory over the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state during the March 9, 2019 governorship poll.

 The indication emerged on Friday evening after a meeting held by the leading opposition parties at the residence of a former governor of the state, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, at Bodija in Ibadan, the state capital. In attendance at the meeting were Ladoja, the chief host; governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Oluseyi Makinde; the gubernatorial candidate of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Senator Olufemi Lanlehin; and their counterparts from the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), and Social Democratic Party (SDP), Alhaji Sarafadeen Alli and Chief Bolaji Ayorinde (SAN) respectively. But the arrowhead of the proposed coalition, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, a former governor of the state and governorship candidate of the Action Democratic Party (ADP), was absent at the meeting.

 However, sources at the meeting said the alliance among leading opposition parties towards forming a government of unity would come to reality, adding that the meeting would continue today, and the joint candidate might emerge at today’s meeting. The meeting was said to have considered the overture being made to Alao-Akala by the powers that be in APC to work for the success of Chief Adebayo Adelabu, the APC governorship candidate, and still insisted that they would ensure the proposed alliance comes into fruition. Alao-Akala had left APC for ADP in October 2018 when he could not secure the governorship ticket of APC. But he was said to have met with the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and National Leader of APC and ex-governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, two times within this week, and both parties are still negotiating terms and conditions. The PDP governorship candidate, Makinde, who briefed journalists at the end of the closed-door meeting that lasted for almost two hours, described the meeting as fruitful and progressive, saying the meeting would continue today to finalise talks.