As the 2019 general election inches closer, loyalists of a former governor of Oyo State, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala, have called on him to throw his hat into the ring to contest the governorship election in the state, citing his pedigree in governance as “a tested and trusted leader with immense experience in governance and making life abundant to the masses.”
This was as they commended the All Progressives Congress governments at the federal and state levels for the efforts being made on governance, noting, however, that the someone of Alao-Akala’s pedigree was needed as the next of the governor of the state in other to make life abundant for the people, having shown this during his first attempt in office that he was a lover of the masses.
Thousands of the former governor’s loyalists drawn from all the 33 local governments of the state, under the aegis of the Akala Support Group, converged on the Banquet Hall of the Premier Hotel, Ibadan, on Thursday, calling on Alao-Akala to seek a fresh term in 2019.
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Several leaders of the group, who spoke during the event, including the chairman of the group, Dr Fola Akinosun; former secretary of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Comrade Olu Abiala; former chairman of Ibarapa East Local Government, Chief Agboola Adeyemo and Honourable Gunju Ojo, who spoke on behalf of three other members of the Oyo State House of Assembly, commended Governor Abiola Ajimobi for his efforts in developing the state.
They, however, noted that it was imperative for Alao-Akala to join the race in other to bring a human face to development as well as bring back the pro-masses and massive infrastructural development known with his administration, noting that the APC would be in good stead if Alao-Akala flies its flag in the 2019 election.
In a communiqué read at the end of the meeting, the group called on lovers and supporters of the former governor to ensure they “get their permanent voter cards and sensitise others to do so,” adding that “there is need to locate the right person for Oyo State governorship in 2019; someone who can increase the pace-setting bar of the state; someone who will sustain and equally reorder both social and political developments of the state with proper hindsight and experience.”
The communiqué read: “That, to satisfy the yearnings of the people of the state, it is imperative to make a clarion call to Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala to contest in the governorship election of the state in 2019, so that the succour, humane posture, economic advancement and infrastructural development,” which were hallmarks of his first tenure could be repeated with renewed zeal in 2019.