…As Ladoja threatens INEC over distribution of PVC

By Ola Ajayi & Bashir Adefaka

Ibadan—IBADAN, Oyo State capital was agog yesterday, as All Progressives Congress, APC’s only surviving Senator in the state, Senator  Olufemi Lanlehin, formally defected to Accord alongside APC chieftain, Yemi Aderibigbe, former Senator Gbenga Babalola of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, among others.

RECEPTION: Senator Rashidi Ladoja (with mic), assisted by Oyo State Accord Party chairman, Bashir Bola Lawal and others receiving Senator Olufemi Lanlehin, and others, who defected from the All Progressives Congress, APC, to the Accord Party, in Ibadan, yesterday.

On ground to receive the new members at the event that took place at the Mapo Hall, was the National Chairman of  Accord and former governor of the state,  Senator  Rashidi Ladoja, assisted by state chairman of the party, Bashir Bola Lawal,  Secretary,  Ogundiya Oguntoye and others, including  incumbent Deputy Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Mr. Babatunde Olaniyan and former Speaker, Adeolu Adeleke.

Speaking, Ladoja, said although Accord was already fully on ground in Oyo State, but the coming of Senator Lanlehin would be a morale booster.
He promised the people of the state that the Accord would not let them down, if elected to form a new government on May 29, 2015, saying “We did it before and we shall do it even better again.”

Speaking, Lanlehin, who described Ladoja as “my leader and father”, urged Oyo State people to vote Senator Ladoja as governor in 2015 and Accord candidates in other elections to ensure that whoever would be in government at any level from Local Government through the state to the federal would be of Accord.

In the same vein, former Speaker of Oyo State House of Assembly, Adeleke said “The APC when they were ACN said you should not vote for a party that does not a Senator. Today that Senator Lanlehin is now in Accord, I want to urge you the people of Oyo State, not to vote for APC because it is now truly a party that does not have a Senator.”

Others in attendance at the event included member of House of Representatives and Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Education, Abiola Ajaja; another serving Accord’s House of Representatives member,  Olayemi and many others.
Meanwhile, Senator Rashidi Ladoja has threatened to lead a protest against INEC if eligible voters   in the state did not get their cards.

He said this in Ibadan during a grand reception of Senator Lanlehin and other new members to Accord.
According to him, he was yet to receive his permanent voter’s card.
“Concerning the permanent voter’s card and continuous registration exercise, up till now, in my ward 10, Ibadan North, I have not been issued my own permanent voter’s card, INEC Ibadan has assured us that the cards will be given to us. If they don’t do it, I will personally lead those without the cards on a protest to INEC”.

Reacting to the defection of Lanlehin, his former party, APC said the rally was a show of shame and demonstration of political naivety, failure and expiration of some political players fond of exaggerating their worth before the electorate.

The party, through its  Director of Publicity and Strategy, Olawale Sadare, faulted the Accord over what it called the opposition party’s notoriety for parading the same set of pretenders and blackmailers as defectors from the APC with a view to misinforming the public and possibly winning the sympathy of the electorate in a fraudulent manner or rather plunging the state into another era of needless crisis as its arrow-head did in 2003.
“The rally was nothing but a show of shame organized by a one-man party which is bent on returning Oyo State to the era of political terrorism. It (the rally) was held to celebrate some politically naive and over-zealous individuals who have penchant for sabotaging genuine and well-defined efforts to improve the quality of lives of the masses since their mantra revolves around individualism and self-aggrandizement.