Ahead of the 2019 general elections, the Chairman of the 85-member Peoples Democratic Party Strategy Review and Inter-Party Affairs Committee, Professor Jerry Gana, on Sunday, met with a former governor of Oyo State and national leader of the Accord Party, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, behind closed doors.
Gana who was in company of the 2015 governorship candidate of PDP in Lagos State, Mr. Jimi Agbaje met Ladoja at Ondo Street Bodija residence in Ibadan and engaged in a meeting that lasted for three hours.
The duo of Gana and Agbaje were received by Ladoja and his political associates among whom were Senator Femi Lanlehin; Barrister Bayo Lawal; Chief Bayo Lawal; Professor Tunde Ayeleru; Hon. Fatai Adesina; Mr. Nureni Adisa; Alhaji Bashir Lawal and Dr Nureni Adeniran.
The visit came about two months after the governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano, sent a delegation of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), led by Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu and a former Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, to discuss third force arrangement with Ladoja in Ibadan.
Speaking with journalists after the meeting, Professor Gana said his committee, having sat for close to two months, decided to implement one of the key recommendations which was to “touch base with prime movers and genuine democrats who were solidly part of the PDP.”
It would be recalled that Ladoja dumped PDP in December 2010 in the wake of the division that tore the party apart in the build up to the 2011 general election in which he ran for the governorship of the state under the banner of the Accord Party.
The elsewhile Minister of Information, stressed the need for all genuine democrats to unite and rescue Nigeria from the ”ineptitude of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 general election.”
He noted that Ladoja and other democrats across party lines in the country needed to come together in the interest of sustainable democracy, peace, security and good governance in the country.
“We are here to really convey our good wish to Senator Rashidi Ladoja who, though is a key leader in Accord, is one of the founding fathers of the PDP. We are touching base with genuine democrats, those who really wish democracy well in Nigeria. We have come with a very clear message that all democrats must unite,” he said.
Asked if the PDP could attract leaders of other opposition parties to fuse into it in view of its leadership crisis, Gana said the crisis in the PDP was being blown out of proportion, saying that 95 per cent of the party’s leaders were on the same page.
He expressed optimism that the pending judgment of the Appellate Court on the leadership tussle in the party would clear all doubts about the authentic leadership of the party.
He added that the PDP would be re-invented after its committee submits its report and recommendations implemented, but declined to comment on whether the name of the party would be changed.
Our correspondent learnt that one of the proposals put to Gana by Ladoja camp was the need to change the name of the party to attract “genuine democrats.”
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