Disturbed by the meeting of some of its members with Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo State, the leadership of the Zenith Labour Party, has come out to say it did not sanction it.
Bimbo Adepoju, secretary of the party in the state, who spoke to OYOINSIGHT.COM said ZLP chairman, Wole Abisoye and others were on the their own.
This was just as Adepoju said Rashidi Ladoja, former governor of Oyo State and leader of the ZLP, was not happy with the meeting.
This newspaper had reported how Abisoye led members of the ZLP to the government house Wednesday evening to perfect plans to defect to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Abisoye’s meeting came barely a week after notable members of the ZLP, including its governorship candidate, Sharafadeen Alli, met the leadership of the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, at the Premier Hotel to negotiate defection into the party.
Adepoju said the only meeting Ladoja authorized was that of last Friday that had Alli, himself and others in attendance.
He challenged OYOINSIGHT.COM to ask Ladoja’s spokesperson, Lanre Latinwo, to disclose what his boss told him when he called to inform that they were with Makinde discussing defection.
He added that if Ladoja would have anything to do with PDP, he would not have sent any of those who attended the meeting with Makinde.
Calls put across to Latinwo was, however, not successful.
Continued Adepoju, “Apart from Evangelist Suberu, from Egbeda local government, who is hiding his face in the picture and Adedokun from Ibadan North East, as the state secretary of the ZLP, I cannot identify any other party LG chairman who followed Comrade Wole Abisoye to the meeting. The woman there, Bola Olaniyi, from Ogbomoso is a civil servant and non of those in the picture are ZLP party officers. Alhaji Lanre Latiwo represented himself and not High Chief Rashidi Ladoja. You can please confirm the telephone conversation between him and our highly respected leader High Chief Rashidi Ladoja today Wednesday 17/2/2021. Let Lanbash tell the truth. As far as ZLP and our leader is concerned, Comrade Wole Abisoye is on his own because he never discussed meeting with Governor Seyi Makinde with any party leader. Who represented Ibarapa, Oyo, Oke Ogun, Ibadan City and less city zones chairmen apart from the two people mentioned above at the meeting? The answer is NO.”
Taking a swipe at Abisoye and those he described as his co-travelers, Adepoju added that “This is Abisoye who saw nothing good in Governor Seyi Makinde, even up till last week, until they met few days ago. He resigned his position as state chairman of the ZLP immediately the coalition parties adopted Engr Seyi Makinde as governorship candidate in 2019; he left and worked for APC. The Ladoja loyalists are still intact and transcend ZLP alone. For clarity, let those that attended the meeting show the photographs taken there and those that receive them. As far as ZLP/Ladoja loyalists are concerned, it is bye bye to liability and self centered people,” he added.
