It is no longer news that Lagos Senator, Solomon Olamilekan Adeola popularly called Yayi will be running for the governorship of Ogun State come 2019. Already, work has started on the Yayi project underground across all the Local Government areas and LCDA’s in Ogun State. He has appointed Zonal co-ordinators and heavy mobilisation is on going.
But a few months back, his opponents started a big campaign to stop Yayi who is moving fast like a hurricane. One of it is the on going unsubstantiated campaign that Yayi, who officially is from Yewaland is not from there. While some claim he is from Lagos, others say he his from outside Ogun State. The interesting thing is that many of those making the claim are from the same APC party with him in the state but from another faction.
It is no longer news that members of Ogun APC loyal to Gov. Amosun don’t like Yayi and they have not hidden it. He is not in their camp.
It is widely believed that some of them may have generated this campaign that somebody who has lived all his life in Lagos can’t come and take over in Ogun State.
But how true is this claim? An insider in the Yayi camp believes that this claim might just be a political move to stop Yayi from making in-roads into the state.
A few weeks back, City People took time off to do some investigations into the past of the 48 year old politician who was born at Lagos Island Maternity Hospital to Mr. Ayinde Adeola Ogunleye and Madam Abeeni Olasunbo Ogunleye (nee Akinola). We gathered that though he is from Yewa, he grew up in Alimosho area of Lagos.
Following his decision to join active politics, sometime at the dawn of the 4th Republic, Adeola was nominated and won the primaries of the then ruling Action Congress of Nigeria and was elected as a member to represent Alimosho State Constituency 2 at the Lagos State House of Assembly from 2003 to 2007 and again from 2007 to 2011. He was reputed to have been instrumental to the enactment of the law that strengthened the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service, a legislation that catapulted the revenue of the state from N5 billion monthly to over N20 billion. He was also part of the team that passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act and the Public Procurement Act of Lagos State.
He was elected to the Federal Legislature to represent Alimosho Federal Constituency at the Nigerian House of Representatives in 2011.
And when the committees of the House were inaugurated by the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal for members, he got position of the Chairman of the only constitutional committee, the Public Accounts Committee of the House. He got the post as a first time member of the House.
City People also found out that he is a distinguished son of Ago-Isaga, Pahayi, Ilaro, Yewa in South local government area of Ogun State.
City People was told how, in the distant past, a bloody strife accrued in the indigenous settlement of Isaga-Orile and this uprising led to the break-up of the ancient Yewa colony as inhabitants had to flee the town. While men of valor and conquest took refuge in the surrounding but widely separate settlements, the progenitors of Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola found succor in the expanse land of Pahayi, Ilaro in Ogun State, Nigeria, where they settled and later christened Ago-Isaga, Pahayi, Ilaro.
Today, a 3rd generation offspring, Yayi, from the then settlers is coming back home to lead them.
Adeola’s father, Mr. Ayinde Adeola Ogunleye and mother, madam Ogunleye Olasunbo Oluwaseun (nee Akinola), are of Yewa South and Abeokuta South Local Government Area of Ogun State respectively.
His Yewa lineage is as current as in the 3rd paternal ancestral origin from the Agbole Onibata, Ago-Ishaga, Pahayi in Ilaro. He is the 4th son of Ayinde Adeola Ogunleye, grandson to Ogundimu Sangoloni, and great grandson to Olege (third ancestral father). Ogundimu Sangoloni married 2 wives, Atikekerewoba Alake and Alaba as first and second wives respectively. Alaba who hailed from Agbole Alapapo of Joga-Orile, Yewa North LGA of Ogun State, gave birth to only one child; ayinde Adeola Ogunleye. A sizeable number of the evolved families are till today settled at Ago-Isaga, Pahayi, in Ilaro, Yewa South Local Governemnt Area of Ogun State, involved in primary occupations like farming, trading etc.
According to Chief Micheal Adelani Ogundimu, the head of the Ogundimu family in Ago-Isaga, Pahayi, Ilaro “In 1862, a civil strife led to the collapse of the then Isaga Orile where every member of the community had to flee from the place to find refuge elsewhere. Our grandparents found themselves first in Ago Isaga in Ilaro and later migrated to Pahayi. Pahayi is about a kilometer away from Ilaro then, but civilization and development has led to the merging of the two communities and that led to the disappearance boundaries”.
He observed that the 3 Isaga men that settled at Pahayi were Olege, Akanni and Akinola, are of the same parents. Olege later got married to an indigene of Ilaro in the person of Wumiloju (nee) Akande. Wunmiloju gave birth to Shangoade, Motawe and Ogundimu. Ogundimu gave birth to Ogunleye and five other children. Ogunleye is the father of Senator Yayi.
He went further to state that “The 1862 war scattered the Isaga people even up to the Republic of Benin. There is Iju-Ishaga and Ishaga Surulere in Lagos State and Ishaga Oke odan in Idiroko and in many other places. Senator Adeola was the Chairman of year 2015 Isaga Day celebration. The celebration is an avenue for all Isaga sons and daughters to meet and interact.
Senator Adeola’s immediate maternal lineage is of a very Egba origin, being born in Madam Abeeni Olasunbo Oluwaseun of the highly respected Akinola family. His maternal grandfather, Pa Akinola Julius Sodipo (a.k.a. Baba Pupa) of the Kilaso compound in Kenta Odutolu, Abeokuta South Local Government Area, was widely respected as a very disciplined man who lived for over 115 years and was a successful farmer and trader with exceptional leadership qualities.
Verifiable historical evidence reveals that his mother’s paternal grandparents were from Itoku before arriving Kenta in the present day Abeokuta South Local Governemnt Area of Ogun State. his mother’s grandfather, NOfiu Odu gave birth to Julius Akinola Sodipo, the Madam Abeeni Olasunbo Oluwaseun (YAYI’s mother).
The famly’s farmland is in Asu, in Kobape Area of Obafemi Owode LGA, also in Ogun State. Asu is the District hub for 7 other settlements, while Kobape is sited within a Local Government Development Area Council. Madam Abeeni Olasunbo grew up at Ikija, also in Abeokuta South LGA.
Madam Olasunbo’s maternal root is in Olorunda, near Imala Village on the way to Ilaro. During her life time, Madam Abeeni Olasunbo was an active and prominent member of Egbe Alaro Cloth Dealers in the famous Itoku market, Abeokuta.
“From the above narratives, Sen. Solomon Olamilekan Adeola is evidently rooted in both Yewa and Egba lineage of Ogun State explained one of his political associates.
Adeola grew through self-development. He began his formal education at State Primary School in Alimosho, Lagos and proceeded to Community Grammar School Akowonjo, Lagos for his Secondary Education.
He subsequently proceeded to the prestigious Ondo State Polytechnic Owo, now Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo State, where he bagged a Higher National Diploma in Accounting (H.N.D) out of personal zeal to excels, Sen. Solomon Olamilekan Adeola got enrolled for his professional courses while in school, becoming a Chartered Accountant at a very young age. He is distinguished Member of the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) and also an Associate Chartered member (ACA) of the the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).
WORKING EXPERIENCE
He started his professional carrier as a junior staff with The Guardian Newspaper Limited, where he worked for 12 years and rose to the position of the Accountant.
He later proceeded to Olatunji Omoyemi and Company: a Chartered accounting firm, where he led the audit team for several years. He was then promoted to the position of a Senior Auditor.
Later he floated his own company, SOOTEM Nigeria Limited, a specialized tax consulting firm.
Worried by the Yayi is not from Yewa campaign, the Lagos West senator got his campaign organisations to put online the story of his full ancestry and roots, and a video based on that produced with Obas, Chiefs and relations attesting to his Yewa, Ogun state origin.
A top aide of Yayi explained that this campaign of calumny is not coming to their group as a surprise. “It is part of traits of a winning aspirant. It happened to Osoba, OGD and others,” he explained.
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