BY OLA AJAYI

IBADAN-INDICATIONS emerged Monday that the former Governor of Oyo State, Senator Rashidi Ladoja may return back to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as he said he would not close his eyes completely to the party from where he defected to the Accord Party to contest the April 2011 governorship election in the state.

While speaking in Ibadan, the former governor said despite the criticism by many Nigerians that the party had not fared well, he said, he would not join those saying the party was the worst thing to have happened to the country.

According to him, “there are still many good hands in the PDP and if things are put in proper shape, the party would still make positive impact in the country.”

He said he did not regret contesting the election on the platform of Accord Party, saying today he had succeeded in making people aware that there are three main political parties in the state and that his party, Accord Party could not be easily sidelined when taking important decision in the state.

The former governor restated that if he had not contested the governorship election, immediate past governor of the state, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala would have stood a good chance to win a re-election.

Ladoja, who stated that he had advised the party through the emissary sent to him to consider returning to the party to ensure right things were done, noted that the problems of the party started when the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo allegedly hijacked the party and made himself lord over other members including that chairman of the party then.

He said, the party could have done well if the former president had allowed Chief Sunday Awoniyi to become the chairman of the party after Solomon Lar.

Senator Ladoja decried the portfolio that PDP led government gave the South West especially Oyo State for quite some years now.

He said, it was not fair that the state, despite its political influence in the South West, should be given minor ministerial slot.

When asked if he would contest election again as a governorship candidate, he said, he could not say precisely now, adding that the political expediency of 2015 would determine.