Forty-eight hours to the state congress of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Oyo State, two leading candidates for the position, Alhaji Omokunmi Mustapha and Chief Jacob Adetoro are putting finishing touches to their campaign.
This is coming after the party had zoned the slot to Oke-ogun area of the state.
The party, insideoyo.com was informed, is working on a consensus arrangement.
This, insideoyo.com gathered, is in order to forestall trouble and avert post congress crisis.
Both are said to have led the party in the past. Mustapha, an Iseyin indigene and Adetoro, who is the Asiwaju of Igbeti, have always been known with the party.
Former governor Rashidi Ladoja, who is seen as the leader of the party, and his supporters, unconfirmed sources confided in insideoyo.com, are routing for the candidacy of Mustapha.
It was further learnt that Ladoja would ordinarily have supported Adetoro, his former commissioner, but for the latter’s decision to queue with former governor Adebayo Alao-Akala when the former was impeached.
Mustapha’s closeness with a former minister of Federal Capital Territory, Oloye Jumoke Akinjide and Engr. Seyi Makinde is said to be making his chances brighter.
On the other hand, those who are afraid of the rumoured ‘takeover’ of the party by Ladoja are working behind to prevent the emergence of Mustapha. They are said to have begun moves to sponsor a neutral candidate.
An informed party source told insideoyo.com that “the state congress may actually go like we did during the ward and local government congress. The chairman and other executives will emerge through consensus arrangement, though I cannot tell you who will get what and how.”