BY OLA AJAYI
IBADAN -THREE governorship aspirants of the Action Congress of Nigeria,ACN, who were said to have concluded plans with Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo State to fan ember of disunity within the ACN have denied having any clandestine meeting with the governor.

Mr. Soji Akanbi, Professors Wale Oyemakinde and Wole Akinboade were alleged to have met the governor at a popular hotel on Ring road, Ibadan and had a deal with him to forge ahead with the on-going legal tussle so that it could brighten the chances of the governor who is seeking re-election.

The trio had filed a suit against the leadership of the party challenging the modality used in selecting Senator Abiola Ajimobi as the party’s flagbearer in the April poll.

The action of the leaders had caused disaffection within the party, but the party leaders had extended olive branch to some of the aggrieved parties. Chief Olufemi Lanlehin, who was one of the aggrieved parties was given the ticket of the Oyo South Senatorial District, but it was not clear if the same gesture had been extended to others like Dr. Adebayo Adewusi who worked relentlessly for the party.

According to an impeccable source, the party had pleaded with the three chieftains of the party who are taking legal action against it severally to be patient and that all crises emanating from the primaries would be taken care of.

Responding on behalf of Akanbi and Akinboade, Prof. Oyemakinde said it was demeaning for anyone to say he had connived with Governor Akala who, he said, was not his equal in many respects.

He said, these days when mudsling had become the order of the day, anything could be said to paint them black.

“How can I descend so low that I would be having a meeting with Akala to destabilize my party? it is not possible. I have been in politics many years ago. In terms of education, I am well-educated and I have more experience than he. As for the hotel where they said we met with him, I don’t even know the hotel”.

“We still belong to the ACN. We felt our rights were trampled upon and we took a legal step to get redress. I can never be a party to what the PDP is doing. We are different in so many ways. Our ideologies are not the same.

How then can I rubbish my enviable political record and my affinity with progressives now? We believe the matter would be resolved”, he said.

Meanwhile, the crises that threw wind within the party have been put behind as members who had threatened to quit the party had had a rethink. Many of them who spoke with Vanguard said, it would be better to stay with the people they knew than going into the midst of unknown people who had different ideologies.