Are you one of those who still wish that Senator Rashidi Ladoja, a strong leader in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should contest the 2019 governorship election in Oyo State?
Then, you are in for a big disappointment because the former Accord Party leader has emphatically announced that he will never stand in as a governorship contestant again.
He made this announcement while participating in a programme broadcast live on Fresh 105.9 FM Radio in Ibadan on Saturday.
Senator Ladoja, however, said he is now working hard to become the national chairman of PDP.
While speaking further on why he wants to become the chairman of PDP, he said “the experience most of us had in PDP when impunity reigned supreme in the party has taught us a lot of lessons. I want to lead because I want to cleanse the party. I want to make my own contributions to make sure that the head is okay. You know that if the head is rotten, the rest of the body will rot too, so I am definitely not going to contest to become Oyo’s governor again. I am going up and up.
“You see, I can never forget what earlier drove me out of PDP. There was impunity, there was somebody they called garrison commander, I was unjustly removed from the office. Known laws that should rule the party were ignored.”
He also spoke about the decision of ex-Governor Adebayo Alao Akala’s decision not to join-up with him in PDP.
His words “I will miss him but I am not bothered. I brought him in in the first place. So, if he does not want to join us, it does not matter. His people are with us. People like Sharafadeen Alli and others.”
When asked if he regretted losing the last governorship election in the state, he said “We won that election. We went to court and lost out to legal technicalities. They said the person that stood for our evidence was a farmer.
“Moreover, Governor Abiola Ajimobi too knows that he lost the election. That is why he has been telling and asking the market women, artisans and others if they voted for him. He used to ask ‘did you vote for me?’ So, he knows that his 33 per cent votes were just there….”
On the issue of the Olubadan chieftaincy reform, Ladoja had this to say “The whole thing was cooked up by the Ajimobi administration to distract the people. The government came up with this as part of their mastery of propaganda. They are using it to draw the attention of the people away from their non-performance. Moreover, the Olubadan chieftaincy reform matter is a purely local issue. It should not have anything to do with the state government directly.
“And you see, I was expecting Ajimobi to out-perform me because of his background, where he was coming from. He came from the oil industry where performance was mandatory. In the oil industry, salaries do not come late.”
While speaking about how PDP will come up with its governorship candidate in 2019, Ladoja explained that “we will ensure that we have justice, equity and level playing ground. We cannot afford to replay what used to happen. We are working to ensure that we have a free and fair primary election so that even those who lose out will not leave the party.
Packaged by Olayinka Agboola
