2023: "No going back on my decision to contest for Ogun West Senatorial seat" - Senator Adeola

By Our Correspondent 

The Senator representing Lagos West senatorial district, Solomon Olamilekan Adeola has said his aspiration to contest a Senate seat in Ogun State in the next election has been concluded adding that he had no intention to back out from the race.

Senator Adeola, popularly called Yayi, said the passion to serve his people made him take the drastic step despite a series of attempts in the past.

He explained his ambition to return to Ogun State started more than 15 years ago, which he also premised on the need to contribute to the growth and development of his home state.

Adeola had announced switching his political base from Lagos to Ogun State, where he would be contesting for the Ogun West Senate seat in 2023.

By 2023, the accountant turned politician would have spent 20 years in Lagos politics where he had variously served as a member of the House of Assembly, House of Representatives, and the Senate.

However, the Lagos Senator's aspiration is generating controversy as some stakeholders have questioned his indigeneship of the State while also expressing divergent views on the morality and legality of his ambition to contest in Ogun State, having held sway in Lagos politics for about 20 years.

But during interactions with Journalists at his residence in Ilaro, Yewa South Local Government Area of the state, Adeola said he has "decided to come back home for no other reason because of my people. If I want to put the comfort and everything that I believe Lagos provides for me into place, I might see it as a difficult situation, having made two attempts to come back home and those two attempts I decided to return, but this time around there is no going back.

"Yayi is now part and parcel of Ogun State politics. No going back in the sense that I have registered as an APC member of Ogun State and I have changed my INEC voters' card to Ogun State.

"I have chosen to take this bold step because I believe at a point in time in every man's life you must choose what you want to do and you must take bold decisions and this is one of the bold decisions I have to take if I truly want to do politics in Ogun State."

Speaking on the legal implication of his decision, Senator Adeola said his ambition has not contravened either the Nigerian constitution or that of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He also insisted that he remains a Yewa-born man, playing politics in Lagos.

Adeola said "There are other schools of thought that questioned the legal position of my ambition. As far as I'm concerned, have I run foul of the constitution? the answer is no, I have run foul of the party's constitution? The answer is no.

"I have all the legal briefings that it takes to contest this election. And I have continually said, I'm running an election to Senator-elect of Ogun West and not to be a Senator. There is a sharp difference between a Senator and a Senator-elect. 

"If I had run the same election in Lagos while still serving, I will still have been referred to as Senator-elect whose tenure will commence after the expiration of this current National Assembly, so if I eventually emerge as the Senator-elect of Ogun West, it does not mean I'm serving two Senatorial Districts, I'm only serving Lagos and once my tenure ends on June 9, I will be referred to as a Senator of Ogun West if sworn-in as the Senator."