Four opposition political parties in Oyo on Monday signed an agreement to present the gubernatorial candidate of the PDP, Mr. Seyi Makinde as consensus candidate for the March 9 election.
The parties included the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), African Democratic Congress (ADC), Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
The coalition meeting to form an alliance to tackle the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) started few days to the Presidential and National Assembly elections. It became pronounced after the elections.
The need to form the alliance was midwifed by a former Governor of the state who doubles as candidate of the Action Democratic Party (ADP), Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala.
Alao-Akala had approached his former boss, former Governor Rasidi Ladoja, on the need for him to lead other opposition political parties to defeat the APC.
But, Alao-Akala after a meeting with former Governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu abandoned the group and aligned with the Adelabu of APC.
Alao-Akala resolved to abandon the coalition and pitch his tent with APC and Adelabu.
The Director General of the PDP campaign, Mr. Bayo Lawal and his counterparts in ADC, Alhaji Bashiru Lawal; ZLP, Mr. Waheed Akanbi and the head, SDP campaign committee, Chief M. A. Oke jointly signed the agreement to tackle Adelabu and APC, with a promise to make details of the agreement public later.
The signatories in the document said all the parties involved have agreed to present Makinde as their sole candidate.
They said, “Coalition meeting of March 4, 2019.
“Agreement has been reached by members of the coalition parties to adopt Engineer Seyi Makinde as its gubernatorial candidate in the forthcoming gubernatorial election in the state.
“Full details will be made available later on”.
With this endorsement, the coast has now been cleared that the gubernatorial election is now a two-horse race between Mr. Adebayo Adelabu of APC and Seyi Makinde of PDP.