His rally, however, coincided with a press conference addressed by the party’s chairman in the state, Folaranmi Owolabi, and aggrieved aspirants.
Owolabi led the aggrieved members to boycott the party’s public presentation of Alao-Akala and his running mate, Prof. Abideen Olaiya.
Those who were with the chairman at the press conference included Taofeek Lapade (Oluyole); Jubril Arowolo (Ibadan North 1); Aduragbemi Falowo (Egbeda); Olusoji Timothy (Ibadan North West) and Suraju Adeniyi Olapitu (Ibadan South East 2).
“We decided to boycott our governorship candidate’s campaign rally because he (Alao-Akala) and his cohorts have hijacked the party machinery from us.
“Not only that, he has also bastardised and destabilised all the structures put in place even before his arrival into the ADP, less than three months ago,” the party chairman said.
He alleged that the governorship candidate repacked the names of the original ADP contestants with the names of his supporters.
“He has failed us; nobody has collected a dime from him since he joined the party. We want redress as we won’t leave the party for him. He can’t control the party and government’s machinery at the same time,” he added.
But Alao-Akala, joined by his wife, Oluwakemi; his running mate; the party’s secretary, Pastor Dare Ojo and others, said he decided to answer the clarion call to contest again because of the high level of poverty in the state and “the need to clear the mess of the current administration of the ruling All Progressives Congress.”
He described himself as a tested and trusted politician with experience to change the face of governance “to human face administration under the credible alternative that the ADP represent and rule from May 29, 2019 with the fear of God.”
