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| Senator Abiola Ajimobi |
The forum is made up of leaders of thought in the Oyo State capital.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, the forum’s Chairman, Ambassador Olu Sanu, said the elders took the decision to back Ajimobi after thorough assessment of the three leading contestants in the race.
The leading contestants, according to him, are Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Rashidi Ladoja of the Accord Party and Ajimobi.
But in a swift reaction, Ladoja told journalists that the elders’ position was an effort in futility.
The former governor said the masses who invited him “to come and contest so as to rescue them from the shackles of poverty” already knew who to vote for in the election.
He alleged that the plan of the elders was to “plant their stooge” as the next governor of the state
Sanu said Alao-Akala did not deserve a second term because whatever claim of achievements by his administration was not commensurate to the amount of resources available to the state since 2007.
He explained that the forum’s disdain for the governor was not borne out of the fact that he (the governor) was not from Ibadan as people were made to believe, but because of his abysmal performance in office.
He said, “The incumbent governor who is the flagbearer of the PDP has not creditably acquitted himself as the chief executive of our state as we have stated above hence he should not be honoured with a second term.
“As for the flagbearer of Accord Party, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, the Ibadan Elders’ Forum finds it difficult and inadvisable to support his aspiration.
“In the first place, we believe the state needs a leader who has a listening ear, who will listen to the cry of the people and assure their collective needs.
“Besides, should Accord form the government of Oyo State, that will be a government by an isolated party which has no national spread and clout.”
Sanu said that Ajimobi was the most worthy and credible candidate that the state needed.
But Ladoja insisted that the reasons adduced by the elders were “invalid, baseless, untenable and unacceptable to logical reasoning.”
He alleged that the elders were only pursuing their selfish interest.
He said, “They (the elders) are isolated from the people. They don’t know what the people are going through.
“What they want to do is to control government without being in politics. It can be liken to a person that wants to swim without entering water. It is unacceptable to the people.
“I was invited by the people to come and contest. Mine is not an ambition, it is a task; a call to duty.”
The former governor said that the electorates should be allowed to choose their leader through the ballot box and not through endorsement.
Also, Alao-Akala, in a reaction through his Special Adviser on Public Communications, Mr. Dotun Oyelade, said the Ibadan elders could not insult Oyo State people by dictating to them on who they should vote for.
He said at this period of the nation’s democratic development, the elders must be “out of touch with contemporary realities.”
He added that the forum was not representing the general opinion in Ibadanland.
Some of the Ibadan elders present at the press conference included the Otun Olubadan of Ibadanland, Chief Omowale Kuye; Bashorun of Ibadanland, Chief Kola Daisi; a retired Chief Justice of the state, Justice Nurudeen Adekola; Chief Bode Amoo and Chief K.O. Olatunji, among others.
By Olalekan Adetayo, Ibadan Courtesy Of: Punch
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