Senate 2019: Ikorodu Youths Reject Ashafa, Drum Support For Abiru

Kunle ADELABU & Wale JAGUN

-Odugbesi, Shillings also get supports as more aspirants join race

The youths of Ikorodu division have intensified their agitations for the replacement of Senator Gbenga Ashafa, the current Senator representing the Lagos East Senatorial District at the National Assembly with candidate of Ikorodu extraction in the 2019 general elections.

The agitation is also backed by some political, opinion and professional leaders in the division.

The debate on the rejection of Senator Ashafa by the youths of the Ikorodu division, which have been going on for some time now on the social media especially on THE IMPACT and some other WhatssAp platforms related to Ikorodu division, was reignited recently.

The youths in Ikorodu division hinged their opposition on the performances of the lawmaker since his election to represent Lagos East Senatorial district at the National Assembly which, according to them, pale considerably when compared to the achievements of his predecessor, Sen. Olorunimbe Mamora as well as the need to balance representation among the components of the Senatorial district.

While Somolu/Kosofe and Epe/Ibeju-Lekki axis have presented representatives to represent the district for two terms each, Ikorodu had only been given the opportunity once.

The youths, who have been promoting Otunba Ganiyu Abiru, the Chairman, Ikorodu-Oga Development Association (IKODASS) and Hon. Sanai Agunbiade, the representative of Ikorodu Constituency I and the Majority Leader of the Lagos State House of Assembly for the senatorial position,  are now focusing on the former since Hon. Agunbiade has decided to vie for the State Assembly for the fourth term.

Another person being considered for the Senatorial seat is Barr. Saheed Kolawole Shillings, former Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikorodu chapter, and a former House of Representatives aspirant on the platform of  All Progressives Congress (APC). The legal practitioner, like Otunba Abiru and Hon. Agunbiade, were being encouraged to run based on their track records.

The searchlights of the youths for the Senatorial seat have also been beamed on the former State Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Primate Charles Odugbesi who recently declared to contest for the position.

Others in the race to take over from the embattled incumbent occupant of the coveted seat are Engr. Ahmed Oduborisa, a reknowned professional and politician and Princess Oyefusi, the daughter of the late Oba of Ikorodu, on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Feelers reaching THE IMPACT also indicated that Hon. Bayo Osinowo, popularly called ‘Pepper’ by his teeming supporters and who is  also the oldest and most influential lawmaker at the Lagos State House of Assembly, has  received the green light from the national leader of APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to vie for the Senatorial position.

Osinowo is from the Somolu/Kosofe axis of the Senatorial District.

According to the report gathered, the cerebral State lawmaker, who is said to be a stabilizing factor in the House of Assembly, has perfected plans to declare for the seat.

This move by Hon Osinowo have been predicted by some political watchers to greatly unsettled Sen. Ashafa’s third term bid despite his endorsement by APC leaders in the Senatorial district.

The recent fierce agitation by a section of the Ikorodu division, which reawakened the opposition to Senator  Ashafa’s third term ambition, was started during a chat on THE IMPACT Whatsap platform by a leading youth in the division, Ogo-Oluwa Godwin.

Ogo-Oluwa queried the performance of the Senator when he inspected some of the projects he facilitated through Constituency Projects in the district.

Some of the projects inspected by the Senator included the newly built block of classrooms with Offices, toilet and storage facilities at St. John Anglican Primary School in Imota Local Council Development Area (LCDA) , an ICT Centre/Town Hall also in Imota, a 500 KVA Transformer for residences of Agbowa in Ikosi Ejinrin LCDA where lack of a transformer had led to persistent shortage of power supply for years.

The Senator also inspected a Solar Powered Borehole in Itoikin, also in Ikosi Ejinrin LCDA.

Bolaji Isikalu, a young entrepreneur and IT expert, was first to respond stating: “These achievements are not worthy of praise for an additional term in office. The appropriation of the listed achievements was funded from constituency projects and it is statutory for every elected member of the National Assembly. Ashafa should rather be showcasing an exceptional score card”.

“A serving Senator does not need to lobby to get funding for those projects. He is only making noise because he needs to showcase something to seek for additional term in office”, he added.

In his own contribution to the discourse, Tayo Odesanya stated, “Ashafa has demonstrated over time that we are not in his reckoning”.

Kolade Balogun in his own reaction stated: “This may be the ruling party’s undoing but it would be better if the party can recall that the same Senator was rejected on his quest for second term at the first primary election towards the 2015 General Elections in Ikorodu. He was actually saved by the party which called off the primary because the delegates were ready to vote against him but unfortunately, he was the only aspirant for the seat and even at that, they had to rescheduled another primary at Epe where delegates were reduced by more than half and were even bribed before he could emerged”, he alleged.

The information that Otunba Abiru, who reached the peak of his career before retiring from the service of the Lagos State Government as Permanent Secretary/Clerk of the Lagos State House of Assembly, is not interested in politics has failed to stop the massive support for him to join the Senatorial race.

Ibrahim Alani Onibudo, an Ikorodu-born Canada based entrepreneur, stated, “Otunba Abiru’s refusal would only embolden the youths of the Lagos East Senatorial District to forge ahead in making him get the ticket to represent them.

“Well, let him come and refute all the youths of Lagos East Senatorial district. We shall carry him on our heads and walk from his house to the Red Chamber in Abuja. It’s not an easy thing for us to place our future and destiny in his hands. He must take this offer by force ni”, he stated emphatically.

Adekoya, a youth leader, also contributing stated: “If you ask me, I will say Abiru is the best man for the job. The task at hand is beyond the entire youths of Ikorodu division. We all need to do more physically to prove our point. Otunba is a very straightforward man. Will some of the hyenas and jackals in our polity give him the needed support? he asked.

Ibrahim Onibudo added, “We cannot continue to let the “hyenas and jackals” decide our future. We have chosen Abiru based on the simple fact that we are well convinced that he would perform excellently and deliver beautifully well if he represents us at the red chamber of NASS”.

Alhaji Taiwo Odumbo, a teacher, did not allow emotion to becloud his sense of reasoning as he  exhibited understanding of the political terrain by calling for consultations and involvement of some stakeholders.

“Yes, Otunba Abiru might not belong to any political party but remember he was a former Clerk of the Lagos State House of Assembly. That gives him the opportunity to romance with the powerful forces in politics.

“Though, it’s a difficult task except we want to hide the truth but it’s doable and very possible. I will suggest we start our politicking inward. Let’s engage our political leaders, political office holders and seek for their blessings. Royal fathers are also very important”, he suggested.

Otunba Muyiwa Adesanya, a Vice Chairman of the Ikorodu Local Government and former Executive Secretary of Imota Local Council Development Area, also offered some useful advice to the youths in their to draft Otunba Abiru into the Senatorial race while also assuring them of his support.

“Otunba Ganiu Abiru for Senate” is indeed a worthy move in the right direction but we need to take cognizance of the following: the willingness of Abiru to accept our moves, and the willingness of the people of Ikorodu division to accept that it is indeed our turn and their readiness to join hands together to ensure it succeeds”.

He added that, “The issue of Representatives and Senatorial seats are not just local government or divisional things. Sorry to say, the consent of the Council of the APC leaders in the district (GAC) and especially that of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is very vital. Once we are able to perfect all of the above, honestly we are good to go”.

Adding his own voice to the support for Abiru, Mr Ohi Monday Obadan, a social commentator, community activist and youth developer in Igbogbo, stated,

“As an enlightened and cerebral persona who is pivoting and piloting stakeholding in Ikoroduland, I hereby add my voice to the clarion call or as we say it in Christiandom “Macedonian call” which I now coin…”IkoroduYouthsYearn4Abiru” to vie for the senatorial seat on behalf of Ikorodu Division on any political platform he may choose”.

Meanwhile, the youths are being tactical in their approach to draft Otunba Abiru into the race because of the fear that he may eventually not agree to their ‘coersion’  by also throwing up Primate Charles Odugbesi, the former State Secretary of APC whom they also described as another cerebral politician.

Tayo Odesanya, while proffering the alternative stated, “But if Mr Charles so feel he’s capable of maneuvering the murky waters, it’s only imperative that we encourage him”.

Tayo’s position found support in Onibudo Ibrahim and others who also consider the former APC  Scribe as a good candidate to represent the interest of the division at the Senate.

Onibudo stated,  “Mr Charles Odugbesi is a good choice too. As for Otunba Abiru, its not about his will, but the will of the people. The will of the people is the will of God”.

Since the commencement of this present political dispensation in 1999, Otunba Seye Ogunlewe, contested and won the election to represent the district at the Senate between 1999 and 2003 on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) before moving over to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before the expiration of his term; Rt. Hon. Olorunnimbe Mamora, the former Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly from Somolu/Kosofe axis, was elected to represent the district first between 2003 and 2007 and later between 2007 and 2011.

It came to the turn of Senator Gbenga Ashafa from Epe/Ibeju-Lekki axis of the senatorial district first between 2011 and 2015 and later his current term which commenced in 2015 and ends in 2019.

The position of the youths is that, Ikorodu division, which has only served for one term and has the largest voting population in the district, should be allowed to present the next representative of the Lagos East Senatorial district at the Senate for equity and fairness.

And to show their seriousness for their clamour for the choice of Otunba Abiru and Ikorodu division to clinch the Senatorial ticket, the youths have opened social media platforms to draw support for their mission.

One of such is the ‘G.O.A (Ganiyu Olusegun Abiri) For Senate Movement’, a whatssApp platform which has been a beehive of activities and permutations towards the gathering of supports for the unwilling IKODASS Chairman.

THE IMPACT also gathered that the Chief Convener, Tayo Odesanya, as well as other leading figures of the movement have also perfected plans to hold consultations with major stakeholders in the division on the adoption of Otunba Abiru as a consensus candidate.