Former governor Rashidi Ladoja may have many of his loyalists if he refuses to stay in the African Democratic Congress, ADC.
Some of his supporters yesterday said they won’t follow him to Zenith Labour Party, ZLP.
The supporters took the decision at a meeting held in Okaka, Itesiwaju Local Government of the state.
OYO INSIGHT had reported how Ladoja had made his his third defection in one year.
He had dumped Accord party for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, last year. But he left PDP to the ADC in May following irreconcilable differences with the new leader of the PDP in the state, Engr. Seyi Makinde.
He blamed his latest move away from ADC for ZLP on what he termed excesses of members of the Unity Forum, a bloc within the party which is a breakaway faction from the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Unlike how his supporters followed him massively from PDP to Accord in 2010, and from Accord back to PDP in 2017, and also from PDP to ADC in 2018, he may be travelling alone this time around.
In a communique, signed by Engr. Hamid Gbadamosi and Hon. Rafiu Afuku, and released at the end of the meeting, his supporters said they still recognized him as their leader but that they won’t leave the ADC with him.
They also insisted on keeping their support for the ADC governorship candidate, Sen. Olufemi Lanlehin, who emerged through Ladoja’s support.
The communique read in part: “The meeting noted that Senator Rashidi Ladoja is still recognized as our leader and we have been loyal to him up till now. All the times he contested elections, we supported his candidature with everything we had. It was noted that loyalty is not transferable, our loyalty to Senator Ladoja is, therefore, not transferable.
“We recognized that having believed in Senator Olufemi Lanlehin (another disciple of Senator Ladoja), he (Sen Ladoja) endorsed him as the ADC gubernatorial candidate for Oyo State in the 2019 general election. We hereby pledge our continued support for the candidature of Senator Olufemi Lanlehin as the African Democratic Congress (ADC) gubernatorial candidate for Oyo State in the forthcoming gubernatorial election.
“The meeting, therefore, unanimously resolved that the Oke-Ogun Ladoja Political Group affirms that we still remain as members of African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Oyo State, Nigeria with an unflinching support for Senator Olufemi Lanlehin’s governorship candidature.”
