All arrangements appear set for the return of a former governor of Oyo State, Chief Rashidi Ladoja, to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which he dumped in the buildup to the last general election.

Chief Ladoja formally quit the umbrella party in December 2010 and picked the governorship nomination form of the Accord Party (AP) as the candidate of the party for the April 26 governorship election last year.

Ever since the strong showing of Ladoja’s party at the last election, there has been mounting pressure on him to return to the PDP to help rebuild and fortify the party against the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

Chief Ladoja, Saturday Tribune can authoritatively reveal, has been visited in his Bodija residence by many chieftains of the PDP who want him back in the party.

Minister of State, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ms Olajumoke Akinjide, who is one of those persuading the former governor to come back to the PDP, recently facilitated a meeting of Ladoja with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Villa, Abuja, where the issue of his return and other issues were discussed.

He had hinged his return to the PDP fold on the entrenchment of democratic ideals in the party and the elevation of Ms Akinjide to a full ministerial capacity instead of the current junior ministerial portfolio of the minister, adding that the PDP-controlled Federal Government had not been fair to the state by relegating its successive ministers to second-class status since the nation returned to civil rule in 1999.

Saturday Tribune gathered exclusively that Chief Ladoja met with former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abuja, a few weeks ago, to discuss the condition for Ladoja’s return to the umbrella fold.

The former governor, it will be recalled, has been one of the most vitriolic critics of former President Obasanjo, whose leadership style he  has always criticized as being responsible for the misfortunes of the party in the South-West geopolitical zone.

It was gathered from a dependable source that Chief Ladoja reiterated his criticism of Obasanjo’s leadership of the PDP in the region, particularly how he interfered in Oyo State chapter of the party and aided the imposition of unpopular candidates leading to the loss of the PDP in the state.

He was said to have told the former president that he would return to the PDP only if Obasanjo would hands off the running of the party in the state and allow democratic ideals take precedence over other considerations.

Chief Obasanjo, in response, was said to have said he would not only withdraw from the state chapter of the PDP but also hands off the affairs of the party in the South-West region and retire from active politics at the party’s convention in March.

The former president and Board of Trustees chairman of the PDP was said to have apologised to Ladoja and charged him to let bygones be bygones.

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