20th January, 2011
It has now been officially confirmed that the Lagos State Commissioner for Women Affairs & Poverty Alleviation, WAPA, Mrs. Victoria Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, is the running mate of Governor Babantunde Fashola in the April governorship election in Lagos State.
Sources told P.M.NEWS this morning that it is Adefulire’s name that the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, as Fashola’s running mate in the April election.
This development effectively ends the speculation surrounding the return of the current Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Sarah Sosan, to serve with Fashola for a second term.
After ACN gave the party’s governorship ticket to Fashola, P.M.NEWS had reported last week that the party’s leaders had settled for Adefulire as Fashola’s running mate.
Part of our report read: “Though she would have loved to continue to work with her boss, the powers that be at the ACN are said to be shopping for a deputy governorship candidate for Fashola…
“It was gathered that the party’s hierarchy may have opted for the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, WAPA, Mrs. Joke Orelope-Adefulire, who has been doing well in her ministry.â€
The report also quoted a top government source as saying: “I can tell you authoritatively that Sosan is not going to be Fashola’s deputy come 2011 elections. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire is highly favoured to replace her.â€
Mrs. Orelope-Adefulire has been in politics for close to three decades. A trained secretary and social worker, she, like Sosan she is succeeding, is an Awori from Alimosho, a suburb of Lagos where she is a popular grassroots politician.
Orelope-Adefulire is the daughter of the famous Awori leader in Lagos West, Alhaji Jimoh Kareem Laka Orelope, a leading politician in Lagos West.
She was a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly between 1991 and 1993 and an Electoral Commissioner in Lagos State Independent National Electoral Commission between 2003 and 2007.
While in charge of the Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation Ministry since 2007, she is said to have aggressively pursued the skills acquisition and economic empowerment of low income women.
Born 29 September, 1959, Orelope-Adefulire attended the Salvation Army Primary School, Agege from where she obtained the First School Leaving Certificate.
She proceeded to the Lagos Metropolitan College, Yaba and Saint Joseph Secondary School, Agege for her secondary school education, passing out in 1978 with the West African School Certificate.
She was admitted to the Lagos State University, LASU, where she bagged a Diploma in Social Work.
She is fondly called by her admirers Iya Alaanu because of her commitment, kindness and dedication to the poverty alleviation empowerment programme in Lagos State.
Meanwhile, the son of former Lagos State governor, Lateef Jakande, Deji, has been given the ACN ticket to run for the State House of Assembly election from Bariga constitutency.
He was initially eyeing the House of Representatives ticket which has now been given to a more popular candidate, Sulaiman Omoyele Akeem.
— Kazeem Ugbodaga
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