Alao-Akala meets with Tinubu, rejoins APC

Adebayo Alao-Akala, former governor of Oyo State, has reportedly met with the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu.

Okay Nigeria understands that Alao-Akala has dumped Action Democratic Party (ADP) and rejoined All Progressives Congress (APC).

The former governor of Oyo state had in October 2018 dumped APC after he failed to secure the party’s governorship ticket in the primaries.

However, Alao-Akala, visited the national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in the company of his wife, Oluwakemi Alao-Akala; his son, Olamiju and the Director General of his campaign, Wale Ohu, at Bourdillon on Thursday.

He asked to be given 24 hours to formally make a statement on the meeting with the APC national leader.

“It is true. Both of us have been meeting and we will continue to meet. I will call you in 24 hours to let you know the state of things,” he told Okay Nigeria correspondent in a call.

A close source to the former governor revealed that the people of Oyo State could vote against the APC candidate, Adebayo Adelabu.

The source said, “Tinubu and Alao-Akala met on Tuesday. Tinubu asked Alao-Akala, who has many supporters in Ogbomoso, to collapse his structure into that of Adelabu. We know that if Alao-Akala was in our camp, there was no way Atiku would have had such a good outing in Oyo State, especially Ogbomoso.

“The PDP governorship candidate, Seyi Makinde, is popular and he is also an Ibadan guy like Adelabu, which means that they will both split the votes in Ibadan. The APC will need to forge an alliance with elements in Ogbomoso to get an advantage.”

The source also added when asked why the APC did not forge an alliance with Alao-Akala before now, the source said they would have done so but Governor Ajimobi told them that there was no need to worry.

In his words: “We knew that the people were not too happy with the governor as far back as June 2018 when the PDP candidate, Adebo Ogundoyin, won Ibarapa-East Constituency by-election which was held to fill the vacant position created by the death of former speaker of the House of Assembly, Michael Adeyemo.

“We knew that Alao-Akala and Ajimobi had met last year before Alao-Akala joined the ADP. He had made some demands but Ajimobi did not play the politics right. Also, Ajimobi’s decision to convert some chiefs to full monarchs was unpopular among many people.”