Lagos Governance Advisory Council (GAC) member Henry Ajomale has vowed to unseat Representative Okey-Joe Onuakaluasi following a controversial empowerment list that favored the lawmaker’s ethnic group over the local Yoruba constituency.
Henry Ajomale, a prominent member of the Lagos Governance Advisory Council (GAC), has publicly vowed to ensure that Okey-Joe Onuakaluasi, the Member of the House of Representatives for Oshodi-Isolo II, is unseated from his position. The threat follows a wave of backlash directed at the lawmaker after he released a list of 29 beneficiaries for his recent empowerment scheme, which provides opportunities for nursing, cyber security, and food processing studies in China and South Africa. Critics pointed out that the list was heavily skewed toward Onuakaluasi’s own ethnic group, with 24 of the 29 slots allocated to individuals of Igbo descent, while the remaining five Yoruba beneficiaries were alleged to have “questionable” names.
The lopsided distribution of the empowerment slots has sparked a heated debate regarding representation and indigenous rights within the Oshodi-Isolo II constituency. Ajomale, a veteran of Lagos politics, expressed deep displeasure at the development, suggesting that non-native politicians are systematically depriving the indigenous Yoruba population of resources meant for their development. Addressing members of the constituency in Yoruba, Ajomale emphasized that the local leadership would no longer tolerate what he described as the irrational displacement of the owners of the land.
The GAC member’s remarks have heightened political and ethnic sensitivities in the region, as he signaled a more aggressive stance against the current legislative representation in Isolo. Ajomale insisted that the preservation of Yoruba interests remains the top priority for the advisory council and the community at large. “Whatever is required in this Isolo is what we will give, because some people can’t come from a long distance and steal our land from us… Yoruba land is more important to us. If they move irrationally, we will reduce them to size this time around,” he said.
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