Ladoja Dumps ADC For Zenith Labour Party
Former governor of Oyo State, Senator Rasidi Adewolu Ladoja on Thursday defected from the state chapter of African Democratic Congress (ADC), to Zenith Labour Party.
Ladoja made his official defection announcement to Zenith Labour Party while addressing journalists at his Ibadan Ondo street residence.
Ladoja had last weekend instructed his loyalists to dump the ADC and join Zenith Labour Party.
The former governor while addressing the journalists said his apprehension in ADC was borne out of the fact that the way the party was going it would not be able to win the gubernatorial election in 2019 and the fact that most of the decision makers in ADC, “were invisible.”
He said this facts made him to leave ADC and join Zenith Labour Party.
Flanked with the gubernatorial candidate of the Zenith Labour Party in the state, Barrister Sharafadeen Abiodun Alli and scores of his supporters who thronged his house as early as 7:00 a.m, he added that the way the ADC was going then, its leaders would not be responsible for the decision they made because “those who are making decision in ADC are invisible”.
He said the inability of the leaders of ADC to carry along all the major towns, groups and zones in the state such as the people of Ibarapa geo-political zone, Kajola, Itesiwaju and Iwajowa was another reason responsible for his defection from ADC to Zenith Labour Party.
“Most people who are making decisions in ADC are invisible, they are not visible. You can’t see them. That means that they will not be responsible for the decisions they make.
“I told you that my apprehension was that the way we are going we might not be able to win the elections because there are some areas that were not cater for. I told you about some areas in Ibarapa that were not cater for and we have been talking, so on the last day, the Zenith Labour Party, they decided that look, they can’t bear it anymore and they decided that they are going to field Barrister Sharafadeen Abiodun Alli as the gubernatorial candidate of the party. They sought my consent.
“We were formally in ADC, I am now in Zenith Labour Party. We have been on it for the past three months. The crisis in ADC were unwarranted. The last broke was the choice of the deputy. When I got the information in the social media, I called Femi Lanlehin and he said he did not know anything about how the deputy was picked.
“I called Babalaje, Chief Koleoso, are you aware he said he was not consulted. And I said this cannot hold. It is just courtesy that if you are going to work with me I should be involved in your things”, he said.
Ladoja who said he had the privilege of choosing his deputy, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala in 2003 and not that he (Alao-Akala) was imposed on him.
He added that it will be wrong to choose a deputy for a Governor to be, alleging that if a deputy was pick for a governor to be, they will run a parallel government because they will be representing two interests at the detriment of the people.
Ladoja said, “I choose Otunba Alao-Akala myself. So he was not imposed on me. I said the way we were going, if we are not very careful, we are going to run parallel government when we get there because your deputy emerged without your consent. So he will say I am representing my group, you are representing your group, so that is not good governance.
