Ladoja denies governorship ambition

Former Governor of Oyo State, Alhaji Rashidi Ladoja has distanced himself from certain rumours going around the state that he is planning to counter the moves of the incumbent Governor, Chief Abiola Ajimobi, to pick his successor in the 2019 governorship election in the state.

The Osi Olubadan of Ibadan said he is only interested in making his party stronger at the national level and not thinking about the election billed for 2019.

Rumours are rife in the state capital and environs that Chief Ladoja, a chieftain of Accord Party, who is regarded as the number one politician in terms of popularity in Oyo State, has planned to checkmate the present Governor’s plans to install the next Chief Executive of the state.

He was said to have planned to pick his candidate from another area different from the one favoured by the present occupant of the Agodi State House.

The source said; ”Chief Ladoja is being very smart about this. He is planning to pick his candidate from another area of the state. This means that if the governor picks his candidate from his favoured Oke Ogun area, chief Ladoja will pick his candidate from Ibadan and vice versa.”

However, Chief Ladoja in an interview with Guardian Wednesday said whoever had started the rumoured was deliberately mischievous.

His words: “I am not interested in 2019 governorship election at the moment. It’s either you deliberately want to incite me or the person who floated the rumour is just plain stupid.

“If anybody wants to contest for the governorship ticket in my party in the election, they have to sell themselves to the people and if the people accept the person, all well and good.

“At the moment, I am trying to see how we can build a party with a national outlook, and not a sectional party, which is the level that a lot of party operates at the moment.

“The governor has said that he has identified five people that can succeed him, so why are people talking about me?
The 2019 election does not interest me now.”

In a state-wide media parley, Chief Ajimobi told people of the state that he has identified five individuals who may succeed him when he leaves office in two years time.

Governor Ajimobi has in his recent pronouncements, favoured the Oke Ogun area of the state to pick the next governor of the state.

In a recent public outing in the area, he said, “I assure you that I will reciprocate your love for me. Without prejudice to the competence and legitimacy of aspirants from other zones nursing the ambition of succeeding me, I can say the people of Oke Ogun deserve my support.”

There are even strong signals emanating from the governor’s camp that he is bent on picking a young politician from the Oke Ogun area prominent in the present cabinet to take over the mantle of the state when he vacates the seat in 2019.