Ladoja, others mull return to PDP as Makarfi reaches out to S/West
The Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee of the PDP, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, yesterday, took his membership drive to the South West which saw him visiting former governors of Oyo State, Rashid Ladoja and Adebayo Alao-Akala, and the governorship aspirant of the party in 2015, Engr. Oluseyi Makinde.
Other people visited by Senator Makarfi included a former Minister of Justice, Chief Richard Akinjide SAN, and a former member of Board of Trustees of the party, Alhaji Yekeen Adeojo.
At the Bodija country home of Ladoja, Makarfi said Nigeria was at a crossroad at the moment, saying instead of going forward, it was going backward.
He said this was the time for members of the PDP that defected to return, reconcile with others and work together to take the electorate to the promised land.
Ladoja said he left the party because its handlers lacked the skills of managing success.
He said his problem with the PDP started when he, Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose, Senator Chris Ngige and others were impeached.
Ladoja, however, gave condition for his return to the PDP. “I have no problem with anybody in the state; but I want to know what the thinking of the people upstairs is. Do they still believe that once you are in power, once you are a governor, you have the whole of the state in your hand?
“If our people get the assurances of fair play, maybe they would consider it; assurance that we would be equally treated in the party,” he said.
“Now that you have come here, I don’t know who else that would have been here to give us assurance apart from you, Mr Chairman. Anything you say in PDP today is final.”
On his part, Makinde said he left when things got worse. “I ended up contesting in ANPP. I later rejoined PDP because that is our natural habitat. I contested the senatorial election in 2011; I was not given the ticket.
“I had to leave PDP again because the national executive will not give a level-playing ground. I was tired of going and coming to PDP. What I want is a guarantee of internal democracy. It is good for the party, individual and democracy; I am 99 per cent in PDP.”
Those in company of Makarfi included a former Minister of Information, Prof Jerry Gana; former governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel; former Minister of Power and Special Duties, Elder Wole Oyelese; former Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory, Oloye Jumoke Akinjide; former Leader of the House of Representatives, Mulikat AkandeAdeola, and Senator Ayo Adeseun among
others.