Senator Olamilekan Adeola Solomon, otherwise known as Yayi, the senator representing Lagos West senatorial district at the National Assembly but now seeking to represent Ogun West senatorial district under the platform of the All Progressive Congress, APC in the forthcoming general election has won the battle contesting his candidacy in the Gateway State.
Yayi had defeated the incumbent senator of Ogun West district, Senator Tolu Odebiyi by a total vote of 294 against 0 in the party primary election which took place in May. His emergence as the party candidate was opposed soon after his victory. The accountant turned politician who has spent almost 20 years in Lagos politics where he had served as a member of the House of Assembly, House of Representatives, and the Senate was accused of not being an Ogun State indigene, divergent views were also expressed on the morality and legality of his ambition to contest in Ogun State, having held sway in Lagos politics for about 20 years.
A group known as the Ogun West Liberation Forum had protested his state of origin. The group stressed that the senator is not an indigene of Yewaland and his lineage is unknown. A court case was also instituted against him at a Federal High Court in Abeokuta, Ogun State by some Ogun State indigenes who asked the court for an order of interim injunction restraining APC from submitting the name of Yayi’s to INEC as its standard-bearer in the 2023 general election while he is still a serving Senator representing their Senatorial District at the National Assembly.
According to the indigenes, contesting the election in Ogun West Senatorial District, while still a serving Senator representing Lagos West Senatorial District, means abandoning his elected position therefore leaving the people of Lagos West without representation at the National Assembly. A Federal High Court presided over by Justice Joyce Obehi Abdulmalik sitting in Abeokuta struck out the suit challenging his candidacy. The case was dismissed on the basis that the plaintiffs lack locus standing to institute a case. The Judge added that the case was a pre – election matter and as such, was statute barred as it was filed outside the constitutionally prescribed 14 days.
