Chief Jacob Adetoro was the chairman of the Oyo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the administration of former Governor Rashidi Ladoja. Now the Special Adviser on Political Matters to Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala, he speaks with select journalists on issues affecting the party in the state.  Dapo Falade, who was there, brings excerpts.

What is the present situation of things with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State?
The PDP, as a party, remains as it was and as it is now. There are rules governing the operations of the party, and the truth of the matter is that before you can tamper with the leadership structure of the party, you will have to go through the congress. There was a congress in Oyo State where people were duly elected to direct the affairs of the party at the wards, local government and state levels.

The executive of the party has been intact since they were elected and they will remain intact until another congress is held.

There are agitations that there should be harmonisation of the leadership structures of the party in the state. But, up till now, there has not been anything on that issue. There is no way they can do that outside the laws that established the leadership structure of the party. For now and always, the party remains the same.

As far as the national secretariat of the PDP is concerned, which is the recognised PDP executive in Oyo State?
There is only one state executive for the PDP in Oyo State and it is the one, at the party secretariat there, led by Chief Oladejo Afolabi.  Like I said earlier, the executive is still very intact, and none of their members has been removed. Neither has anyone of them been replaced nor none of them will be replaced until after the next congress which will hold after the general election.

What really happened as regards the alleged recent embarrassment caused to Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala at the National Secretariat of the PDP?
There are people who are agitating that the state executive should be harmonised or divided among some leaders who are trying to return to the party, or had been in the party before, but are relevant. I was a member of the Ladoja group before; I was the one leading the Ladoja group to Abuja on the same issue; and when I looked at the issue critically, I knew their agitation could not yield any success.  
This is not the first time that such a thing would happen in the state. In 2006, there was a parallel congress in the state between the Adedibu/Akala faction held at the Liberty Staduim and the Ladoja faction, which was held at the Adamasingba Stadium. Ladoja, being the governor at that time, was making use of the party executive led by me, and did not recognise the exco sponsored by the Adedibu/Akala faction and supported by the national leadership of the party then and there was nothing anybody could do about it. So, the same thing applies here.

In the case of the Ladoja group, we had left the PDP before to join other political parties for the 2007 elections. So, when we were out of the PDP, a congress was held behind us. There is no moral justification for Ladoja and his group to now ask for the harmonisation of such an executive.

For other leaders who are asking for such harmonization - people like Senator Lekan Balogun, Elder Wole Oyelese, Senator Teslim Folarin and others - they felt they could not muster enough support to win any office in that congress. They now decided not to take part in it. They boycotted the congress and went to court to stop the conduct of the congress. But the court injunction did not have any effect because they were not served the court notice. Even when they went to the court latter, the court said there was no valid injunction to disturb that congress. So, the congress was held and what else can anybody do?

Given the controversies that greeted the return of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar to the party in Adamawa State, has the Oyo PDP accepted Senator Ladoja back into the party?
I will not say that they have been accepted because they have not approached the party. In the case of Atiku, he has gone back to the Adamawa chapter and the national secretariat of the party to announce his return. But even then, people in the state are saying that he has not taken the normal process.

In the case of Ladoja, has he ever come back to the party in the state or at the national level to announce his return? He is only saying it on the pages of newspaper. I was with him before, but when I wanted to come back, I approached the party in my local government and at the state level, and the party accepted me. It was a sort of a rally at Igbeti then. So, if Ladoja wants to come back to the party, he knows the process. To the best of my knowledge, he is not yet a member of the PDP.