Alao-Akala emerges as LP consensus candidate

Alao-Akala emerges as LP consensus candidate

Wednesday, December 10, 2014 9:21 pm



GBENRO ADESINA/IBADAN

Adebayo Alao-Akala, ex-Oyo State governor: now Labour Party governorship candidate

Adebayo Alao-Akala, ex-Oyo State governor: now Labour Party governorship candidate

Former Oyo State Governor, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, who was edged out of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), governorship primary today emerged as the governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP).

Information has it that he emerged as a consensus’s candidate of the party.

During the party gubernatorial primary held at the Olubadan Stadium in Ibadan, capital of Oyo State, other governorship aspirants in the party stepped down for Alao-Akala saying that they had to follow the decision of the elders of the party in a bid to position the party to win 2015 governorship election.

The other four governorship aspirants that stepped down for Alao-Akala were: the former Secretary, Oyo State Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Comrade Olu Abiala; former Commissioner for Trade and Investment in the state, Kazeem Adedeji; former Special Adviser on Local Government Affairs to Governor Abiola Ajimobi of the state, Nurudeen Akinyo and one Tunji Sodiq.

The motion to adopt Alao-Akala as the consensus candidate was moved by a former Commissioner for Environment in the state, Mr. Lowo Obisesan, which was seconded by Musibau Popoola and was ratified by the congress.

The party later announced that Nurudeen Akinyo, Comrade Olu Abiala and Tajudeen Kareem have been ratified as the LP candidates for the Oyo South, Oyo Central and Oyo North senatorial districts respectively.

In his acceptance speech, Alao-Akala stated that his emergence as the LP candidate for the 2015 governorship election marked the beginning of another history in the political landscape of the state, adding that it was the beginning of victory over darkness on the road to the Promise Land.

He said that he was not chased out of the party but the circumstance made him to leave the party for good adding, “We were not chased out either but it was evident that the current leadership of the party had forgotten that politics is not the same as election.”

He said, “We set out to win election because we are sure that we have the masses on our side. But they were busy playing ‘politics from the top’ and never considered its implication during election proper. We refused to satisfy the minority and gamble with the lives of millions because of an inordinate ambition. Let me affirm here that after politics from the top comes election which can only be decided by the masses.”

Alao-Akala noted that the events of the recent weeks spurred him and his supporters into moving from PDP to LP, pointing out, “I want to take you down political archive of this state in the last 35 years. No politician or group of people has ever had a monopoly of winning formula for all elections till date.

“The indices keep on changing every season even while our generalissimo, the late Chief Lamidi Ariyibi Adedibu was alive. This year, against all expectations, something unique and historical happened. That has always been the peculiarity of political algebra in Oyo state and this has continually gone beyond any human ability or permutation.

“From the time of the late Cicero, uncle Bola Ige (1979 to 1983), late Chief Kolapo Ishola’s short term of 1992-1993, Alhaji Lam Adesina, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, my humble self’s first stint as governor of the state and the current administration, the formula has never been the same.”


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