By OLA AJAYI
IBADAN — The reconciliatory move by the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has started to yield positive results in Oyo State as some estranged members of the two factions of the party yesterday embraced one another and resolved to bury all seeds of discord that led to the loss of the entire South West zone in the April 2011 elections.

The forum which was sponsored by the Minister of State, Federal Capital Territary, FCT, Oloye Jumoke Akinjide gave room to some aggrieved members of the party loyal to the former Senate Leader, Senator Teslim Folarin in Ona Ara Local Government and the other faction came under one umbrella and vow to ensure the victory of the party in the local government elections that would be conducted soon in the state.

Vanguard gathered that some chieftains of the party including the former Governor, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, Senator Folarin, Senator Lekan Balogun, Alhaji Taofeek Arapaja met in Lagos to bury the hatchet and other grievances they had been nursing against themselves in the past four years.

At the gathering yesterday, the leader of the Folarin group from wards 01 and 11 in the local government, Alhaji Sobalaje Bakare who was flanked by Elder Jide Ojo declared that they intentionally worked for the opposition to express their anger.

He said now that they had decided to come back to the PDP, all efforts would be geared towards the success of the party.

He said: “We caused our own downfall, but now we have resolved to come together to mend our collapsed ‘house.’

Speaking on the occasion where no fewer than 1,500 members of Accord Party, AP, and some PDP members who worked against the second term ambition of the immediate past Governor, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, the Minister of State, FCT, Oloye Akinjide said she was not surprised by the defection and the true reconciliation of members of the party.

She spoke through her Personal Assistant in the state, Mr. Gabriel Olatundun that she was given a directive by the national leadership of the party to ensure that all aggrieved members of the party reconciled to brighten the future of the party int he state.

Chairman of the party in Ona Ara Local Government Area, Alhaji Waheed Adurodekun said those who went in annoyance with Senator Folarin have come back.

He said; “We are still expecting our members from AP to come. I know they are still coming. This is a true reconciliation. It was not the PDP that actually lost the election, it was the members of the party that actually ruined themselves.