One of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Agege chairmanship aspirants, Hon Sola Osolana, has berated the outgoing local government chairman, Ganiyu Egunjobi, over his recent comments.
A news report had quoted Egunjobi as calling philanthropist-turned-politician Osolana a non-resident and a United Kingdom resident.
Egunjobi made this statement in response to the fallout of the chairmanship and councillorship primaries of the party in Agege and Orile Agege LCDA, scheduled for 12 July 2025.
Egunjobi had said, “Those making these false claims are sore losers, and for years, they ostracised themselves from APC and our communities.
“To put it in context, the likes of MD of Nigerian Railway Corporation, Kayode Opeifa, ex-House of Representatives member, Dr Samuel Adejare, and three-time House of Assembly member, Oluyinka Ogundimu have moved out of Agege for years in terms of residence and are not involved in the activities of the party in both councils.
“In the same boat is Biodun Ogunji, a chairmanship aspirant in Agege who lives in the UK with his family but weeks back came down to Nigeria for the purpose of his aspiration.
“Same thing with his fellow failed aspirant, Bukola Sofidiya, aka Gidado, a US-based Agege politician, and Sola Osolana, who is based in the UK and was the chairmanship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Agege in the last council election in the state.
“It is common knowledge that the leadership of the party in the state, in their wisdom, adopted consensus or delegate voting for the primaries with local government excos as the voters.
“In Agege and Orile-Agege, excos members were constituted about four years ago when the aforementioned persons distanced themselves from the party in both council areas and its activities, as well as stayed away from our dear communities.
“In that context, only people with limited education and obscurity of positions would consider themselves as contenders and not pretenders in the just-concluded primaries.”
In his reaction, Osolana described Ganiyu Egunjobi’s comments as malicious.
“Let me put the record straight amidst Ganiyu Egunjobi’s false statement. I am a resident of Agege who has chains of businesses in the council area for many years. I challenge any politician who has more businesses in Agege Local Government than I do. While many politicians are afraid of putting their businesses here, I have many residents as employees, and they are performing well for themselves and the organisations.
“I challenge Ganiyu Egunjobi to let me and him take a walk around Agege without any security and let the media cover the event. It is then he will know if Sola Osolana is UK-based or rooted in the community.
“Instead of Egunjobi reviewing his poor performance as local government chairman, he is busy putting out untrue statements against amiable individuals in the community.
“On employment opportunities, I challenge him to name how many jobs or businesses he has established in Agege using his private funds during his eight-year tenure. I have established businesses in Agege, where Ganiyu Egunjobi had benefited before he became the chairman and even hosted him and all APC delegates that voted for him during the APC primaries in 2017,” Osolana said.
The businessman-turned-politician later added that his foundation, Sola Osolana Foundation, has contributed meaningfully to the growth of Agege and Orile Agege.
“Over the past 10 years and still counting, I have funded several empowerment programmes for Agege women and youths; educational scholarships for tertiary institution students; financial encouragement for inter-house sports competitions for both primary and secondary schools in Agege and Orile Agege LCDA.
“Mind you, I am actively engaged with all these without recourse to public funds,” Hon Sola Osolana stated.
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