Ladoja no longer Accord Party member’

A chieftain of the Accord Party, Abiola Ajaja, on Monday said the party’s candidate in the last governorship election in Oyo State, Rashidi Ladoja, was no longer in the party.

Ajaja, who was a former member of the House of Representatives, said this in Ibadan during a meeting of the leaders of the party in the South-West.

At the meeting were the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, Dr. Isaac Adeniyi, and leaders of the party from the South-West states.

According to Ajaja, the structure of the party was no longer in the hands of Ladoja and his group because the former Oyo State governor had already negotiated his exit from the party to the Peoples Democratic Party.

However, the Publicity Secretary of the Accord Party in the state, Akeem Olatunji, said Ladoja had yet to make a public statement about joining the PDP and that the meeting held in Ibadan was illegal.

He said the structure of Accord Party remained with Ladoja and that the tenure of the national executive of the national party had lapsed.

Ajaja said, “I want the public to note that the only AP in the South-West is the one that is holding a meeting today in Ibadan. The leaders felt that we cannot continue with the system that led to our downfall in the last election. That was why we also felt that it was time for people of like minds within the party in the South-West to come together to chart a future for it for the sake of the suffering people in the zone.

“Ladoja has no role to play in this meeting. As far as I am concerned and with media report, he has gone back to the PDP but the AP must not die. The two big parties have various challenges and image crisis but the AP has a clean record throughout Nigeria.”

Ajaja said he was denied a ticket to return to the National Assembly because of the lack of internal democracy in the AP.

The chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, Adeniyi, told our correspondent that he had spoken with Ladoja over his alleged plan to join the PDP and that the former governor gave the assurance that he remained in the AP.

He said, “I am aware of the talk between Ladoja and the PDP through the media. Fortunately, Ladoja was with me in Lagos at the time and I asked him for his comment. He said he was not ready to leave the party. I am aware that Senator Femi Lanlein later represented him at a PDP meeting in Ibadan last week but we had yet to talk about it. I am still holding him by his words.”