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)

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