Alao-Akala is Oyo APC leader

From Bisi Oladele, Southwest Bureau Chief

After two months of intrigues, more members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State have embraced the reconciliation efforts of the committee led by former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala.

The Nation gathered that the former governor will be part of a collegiate leadership that will eventually evolve for the party in the state.

It was also learnt that a lone leadership has been jettisoned by stakeholders in order to earn the trust of all members and prevent autocracy.

The huge attendance by members of the various blocs in the party at the reconciliatory meeting, which the Alao-Akala committee called at the weekend, inspired many stakeholders, giving signs of a good future for the party in Oyo State.

The party’s former state leader, the late Senator Abiola Ajimobi, died on June 25.

Read Also: Oyo APC reunites

This created a leadership vacuum in the party. APC suffered a defeat in the last governorship election.

Despite being in power since 2011, the party won marginally in only five of the 33 local government areas while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) cleared the rest.

Many analysts had predicted that Alao-Akala would not be allowed to step into Ajimobi’s shoes because of his antecedent.

He governed the state on the platform of the PDP, from 2007 to 2011, before losing to Ajimobi of the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

Alao-Akala was the deputy governor on the platform of the same PDP from 2003 to 2007.

He joined the APC in 2015, after losing for the second time in the governorship election.

The ex-governor left the party for Action Democratic Party (ADP) before the 2019 election, after failing to pick the APC governorship ticket and returned to the party one week before the governorship poll.

He is the current chairman of the party’s reconciliation committee, which Ajimobi set up earlier in the year before his demise.

Some party leaders argued that the committee is no longer relevant because Ajimobi is no more to receive the report of the reconciliation.

But a reconciliation meeting Alao-Akala called at the weekend in his Bodija, Ibadan home, was attended by leaders and members across the blocs.

Those at the meeting included leaders and members of the Lamist Group, Senator Abiola Ajimobi Campaign Organisation (aka SENACO), the Unity Forum and those from the PDP.

Most of the elected National Assembly members were also there as well as the governorship candidate of the party in the last year election, Adebayo Adelabu.

Some governorship aspirants, like Chief Niyi Akintola (SAN), Joseph Tegbe and Dr. Olusola Ayandele, also attended.

The delegation of the State Executive of the party was led by the Secretary, Alhaji Mojeed Olaoya, with Chief Samuel Olorode in tow.

All the speakers at the meeting expressed confidence in Alao-Akala to bring all aggrieved members together ahead of the 2023 elections. They stressed that his decision not to contest any election again boosted his acceptance, in addition to being a former governor.