Adebayo Alao-Akala, former governor of Oyo state has rejoined the All Progressives Congress, ahead of the governorship poll next week.
The former governor left the APC in October 2018, after the governorship primaries that didn’t go his way. He joined the Action Democratic Party.
Newsmen had reported that Alao-Akala visited the national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in the company of his wife, Oluwakemi Alao-Akala; his son, Olamiju and the Director General of his campaign, Wale Ohu, at Bourdillon on Thursday.
The Vanguard reported that the former governor had asked to be given time to make a formal statement on the meeting with the APC national leader.
“It is true. Both of us have been meeting and we will continue to meet. I will call you in 24 hours to let you know the state of things,” he said.
Newsmen reported that top sources close to the two politicians had revealed Tinubu initiated the meeting after the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, won the presidential election in the state.
A source close to Tinubu, who does not want his name in print, said Ajimobi’s defeat showed that the people of Oyo State could vote against the APC candidate, Adebayo Adelabu.
“Tinubu and Alao-Akala met on Tuesday. Tinubu asked Alao-Akala, who has many supporters in Ogbomoso, to collapse his structure into that of Adelabu. We know that if Alao-Akala was in our camp, there was no way Atiku would have had such a good outing in Oyo State, especially Ogbomoso.
“The PDP governorship candidate, Seyi Makinde, is popular and he is also an Ibadan guy like Adelabu, which means that they will both split the votes in Ibadan. The APC will need to forge an alliance with elements in Ogbomoso to get an advantage.”
When asked why the APC did not forge an alliance with Alao-Akala before now, the source said they would have done so but Governor Ajimobi told them that there was no need to worry.
“We knew that the people were not too happy with the governor as far back as June 2018 when the PDP candidate, Adebo Ogundoyin, won Ibarapa-East Constituency by-election which was held to fill the vacant position created by the death of former speaker of the House of Assembly, Michael Adeyemo.
Alao-Akala had made some demands but Ajimobi did not play the politics right. Also, Ajimobi’s decision to convert some chiefs to full monarchs was unpopular among many people.
*Reported by Vanguard