A labour activist and retired official of the Oyo State Wing of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Olu Abiala has formally expressed his interest in the gubernatorial ticket of the Labour Party (LP) in the state. At a meeting of the party officials presided over by the state chairman, Bashiru Apapa held at the party's State Secretariat, New Ife Road, Ibadan, on Tuesday Abiala's political movement, 'Pace-Setter Advance Movement' (PAM) donated a branded bus to the party for its smooth operation. 

Commending the party officials for what he called their resilience, doggedness and patience, he said, "the party started without attraction to membership because of its abject situation, it could not boast of godfathers and sponsors and so lacking in all it takes to mobilize the people for political advantage and has thus remained in opposition since this democratic dispensation. "Almost beggarly, you have consistently maintained the integrity of the party, financed the party secretariat and held the leadership together. I rejoice with you that in your abject, you remained committed to God and the people and today, God is already smiling at you, ready to give you the rest and comfort and to reward you for diligently and tenaciously holding on to Him", Abiala remarked.

Dwelling on his aspiration to lead the state, the gubernatorial hopeful charged the party leaders that the time had come to re-engineer the state and reconstruct it towards the people and to make the beauty of the environment cohere with the beauty of the people and their happiness. "I will not pretend but to appeal to you to consider me for the foremost slot, the gubernatorial slot in that political consideration. "You have witnessed the economy of the state taken flight from the state and left our workers-the public servants, the market women, the artisans and the teeming masses of the people in forlorn hope of daily bread.

"You have witnessed local governments annexed to the state super structure and denied their resources while leaving the local government workers beggarly. You have no doubt witnessed the emergence of a leviathan in government and the institutionalization of aristocracy in place of democracy", he noted. 

While offering himself to lead avowed to bring the re-engineering and reconstruction process of Oyo State to birth, come 2015, Abiala maintained that all those things being witnessed on the plane of state's craft "were not bargained for when we fought military out in 1999 and forcefully enthroned democracy in on the nation".  While receiving the key of the vehicle from Abiala on behalf of the party, the chairman, Apapa thanked the governorship aspirant described as the first person to show interest in the coveted ticket and promised that it would be deployed to the purpose for which it was donated for-to popularize the party in the state.