The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Ogun State, Senator Solomon Adeola has dismissed claims that he hails from Ekiti State, describing those behind the claims as jesters.

According to NAN on Tuesday, Adeola, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, spoke with newsmen in Lagos on his governorship ambition on Monday.

He said he is a bona fide indigene of Ogun, stressing that both his father and mother were from the state.

“My father is from Ogun State, my mother is from Ogun State. I am from Ogun State. Those who claim I am from Ekiti are jesters,” he said.

Adeola, popularly known as Yayi, also debunked the claim that his father was buried in Ekiti.

According to him, his late father was buried in the house he built at Ogunsola Street in Alaguntan, Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos.

“My father was not buried in Ekiti; my father was buried in the house he built at Ogunsola Street at Alaguntan in Alimosho,” he said.

He said the claims were mere political gimmicks, which, according to him, would not succeed.

“They are just playing politics with the ridiculous claims and they will not succeed,” he said.

Adeola said his governorship ambition was driven by passion to serve and develop Ogun and not for personal enrichment.

“My ambition to be the governor of this state is not based on personal interest or plan to enrich myself or to be in that exalted office to be called governor, but based on passion to serve. Passion to serve the people of Ogun,” he said.

He said his journey to securing the Ogun governorship ticket had not been smooth.

Adeola recalled that his first attempt to return home from Lagos to contest was met with “a brick wall”, forcing him to return to Lagos West, where he won the senatorial seat.

He said his second attempt to succeed former Gov. Ibikunle Amosun also met stiff resistance, which again took him back to the Senate.

According to him, it was on the third attempt that God answered his prayers when he later secured the Ogun West ticket and won, and now the governorship ticket.

The lawmaker said that with 24 years in the legislature – eight years in the Lagos State House of Assembly, four years in the House of Representatives and 12 years in the Senate – he had acquired the requisite experience to govern the state.

He said what Ogun needed now was consolidation and continuity.

“I strongly feel that the next person in line must come to consolidate on the gains we have made in the last seven and a half years as a state,” Adeola said.

He said Gov. Dapo Abiodun had laid a solid foundation for economic development.

“Under the administration of Governor Dapo Abiodun, Ogun has done extremely well, and that I can testify to,” he said.

Adeola explained that governance was about the seen and the unseen, stressing that while the seen were physical infrastructure such as roads, schools and hospitals, the unseen were economic foundations that would give birth to the seen.

He cited the $7bn deep seaport project, whose groundbreaking is scheduled for November, and the Gateway International Agro-Cargo Airport as some of the unseen investments in the state.

Others, he said, were the proposed dairy farm in Ilaro with 5,000 cows and a polymer manufacturing company.

The senator said Ogun remained the most industrialised state in Nigeria under Abiodun, with its Internally Generated Revenue growing from less than N100bn to about N300bn annually.

He added that the state was on the verge of becoming an oil-producing state with exploration activities at Tongeji Island in Ogun West and the signing of the OK Gas project at Ewa.

“All of this coming together, they are the unseen. and so for me, I would say that Dapo Abiodun has laid a very solid foundation in the area of economic development of our state,” he said.

Adeola acknowledged public concerns about roads but explained that over 65 per cent of roads in Ogun were federal roads, adding that refunds for state intervention were always difficult.

He promised to prioritise strategic roads that would open up economic corridors and improve intra-state connectivity.

The candidate said he had promised continuity, noting that his emergence would mean the first time power would be transferred from a friendly outgoing governor to a friendly incoming governor.

“I have promised continuity to the people of Ogun State, and this is the first time we are attempting as a state to have a transfer of power from a friendly outgoing governor to a friendly incoming governor,” he said.

Adeola said his blueprint was anchored on nine pillars encapsulated in his ITESIWAJU slogan – governance that works for everybody.

He listed the pillars as Infrastructure, Tourism and Culture, Education and Environment, Security and Law Enforcement, Inclusive Health and Well-being, Women and Youth Development, Agriculture, Job Creation and Industrialisation, and Urban Renewal and Fiscal Planning.

He clarified that continuity would not be blind.

“ITESIWAJU doesn’t mean that I want to take everything that this administration is doing.

“Rather, areas that I need to continue, I will continue, and areas I need to improve upon, I will improve upon. Also areas I need to change, I will change completely,” he said.

Adeola also noted that Ogun West had never produced a governor since the creation of the state 50 years ago.

He said it was only fair that Ogun people supported his governorship bid, being from Ogun West, adding that with his experience, he would reposition the state for greater prosperity.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Ladi Adebutu of the Peoples Democratic Party is another major contender for the number one seat in the state.

NAN

Source: punchng.com

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Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and some leaders of the Rainbow Coalition met with the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, at the latter’s private residence in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.

Also at the meeting were the state governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Kingsley Chinda and Senator Magnus Abe.

Though the purpose of the meeting could not be immediately ascertained, it was the first time the FCT minister had visited the governor since the beginning of the political crisis that rocked the state and even after the feud between them was resolved.

Recall that after peace returned to the state, a reconciliation committee headed by former Senator Magnus Abe had met with Fubara twice at the Government House on how to accommodate the governor’s supporters in the new political arrangement.

Fubara himself had, during a public function in Port Harcourt, declared that he had returned to his political family.

On the latest visit to the governor’s private residence, which Wike led, sources described the meeting as “strategic and part of the ongoing fence-mending by the minister ahead of the Rainbow Coalition’s campaign for the 2027 general elections.”

A source who pleaded anonymity said, “It is also part of measures to cement the renewed peace in the state. You know the Senator Magnus Abe-led reconciliation committee has met with the governor twice.

“Now, maybe it’s time for the FCT minister to visit the governor to show that peace has truly returned.”

The coalition had yet to officially kick-start its campaign for the forthcoming poll.

It was learnt that the meeting brought together core supporters of Fubara and Rainbow Coalition leaders in the state.

They were said to have agreed to collaborate and strategise on how to work together for the common purpose of winning the next general elections in the state.

Source: punchng.com

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