There is palpable fear among the supporters of Senator Solomon Adeola (a.k.a Yayi) that his 2019 Ogun State governorship race has already hit the rock, even before the whistle is blown.
Senator Solomon Adeola, currently representing Lagos West Senatorial district in the higher chamber is an indigen of Ilaro, Ogun State and has been putting up political groups in Ogun State for his 2019 guber dream.
According to insiders, ‘Yayi’ as Senator Adeola is popularly called has a massive support base in the Ogun West district of Ogun State where his home town is located. Yayi’s popularity grew esponentially during the build up to the 2015 general election when he decided to shift his political base from Alimosho in Lagos where he was representing at the House of Representatives to Ogun State and made a bid for the Ogun West senatorial district.
Adeola’s incursion into Ogun politics actually changed the landscape of the State as he became even more popular than governor Ibikunle Amosun.
We learnt Adeola’s popularity sent jitters down the spine of Gov. Ibikunle Amosun who later had to call Adeola that he would not get the Senate ticket and that he (Adeola) should go back to Lagos for his politics.
Adeola reluctantly went back to Lagos and contested the primaries for the Lagos West Senatorial District which he won and subsequently won the general election to become the Senator representing Lagos West- the Senatorial district is described as the biggest in Nigeria owing to it’s population.
Thus, Senator Adeola began to strengthen his political structure in Ogun State to succeed the incumbent governor Ibikunle Amosun in 2019.
But news filtering into the street has made the ‘Yayi’ 2019 Project a dream that may never come true as yemojanewsng.com reliably gathered that the godfather of the All Progressive Congress in the country, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has a different plan for Ogun State. What was revealed to us was that Tinubu has another successor for governor Amosun and he is Senator Adeleke Olorunnimbe Mamora, a former two term Senator in Lagos State.
According to the source, a meeting of Asiwaju Tinubu’s core men chaired by the governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola was held last week where it was decided that Tinubu will support Mamora for Ogun 2019 Project.
Senator Mamora, originally from Ijebu Ife in Ijebu East Local Government of Ogun State had been playing his politics in Lagos State.Mamora was a National Delegate for the National Republican Convention (NRC) in 1990, and Secretary, Lagos East of the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) in 1998. He was elected to the Lagos State House of Assembly in 1999 and was appointed Speaker. He was Chairman of the Conference of Speakers (2000 – 2001). Mamora was elected to the Senate in April 2003 and reelected in 2007. He was also a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament (2003 – 2006).[1] In 2003 he was appointed chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions.[2]
After resuming his seat in the Senate in 2007 he was appointed to committees on Upstream Petroleum Resources, Selection Committee, Health and Federal Character & Inter-Government Affairs.
Though it is not yet clear why the Tinubu’s camp decided to dump Senator Adeola for Senator Mamora, but feelers indicate that the Yayi’s camp is in disarray as the news continue to spread across the State.
