Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, popularly known as Yayi, has been dragged before the Federal High Court in Abuja over questions concerning the state of origin he allegedly declared in previous electoral documents submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The suit was filed by Abayomi Hunye, a former governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress in Ogun State, as the dispute over the party’s 2027 governorship ticket continues to deepen.
Hunye is asking the court to examine Adeola’s previous nomination forms and other statutory declarations submitted during earlier elections.
His legal team wants the documents reviewed to establish what Adeola declared as his state of origin when he contested elections in Lagos State in the past.
The case was disclosed in a statement issued in Lagos by Hunye’s media adviser, Femi Oyewole, after a press briefing by the aspirant’s lead counsel, Olamide Victor.
Victor said the legal action was not an attempt to question Adeola’s connection to Yewa in Ogun State.
Instead, he said the case was concerned with the consistency of information contained in documents allegedly sworn to by the senator before electoral authorities.
“We are not challenging the indigeneity of Senator Olamilekan Adeola as a Yewa son. What we are bringing before the court is a matter of statutory integrity and constitutional compliance.
“He has held public elective offices over two decades. What state of origin did he declare under oath in his previous INEC nomination forms when he contested in Lagos State? Was it Ekiti State? Was it Lagos State? Any deliberate inconsistency in documents submitted under oath carries severe legal implications,” Victor said.
The legal team did not make the disputed historical documents available at the briefing.
Victor, however, said certified true copies obtained from INEC records would be presented before the court as part of the evidence in the case.
Adeola emerged as the party’s candidate after the governorship primary conducted in May 2026.
The electoral committee announced that he scored 304,055 votes from 305,287 accredited participants, while Hunye was recorded as scoring zero votes.
Hunye subsequently challenged the process and has maintained that the dispute surrounding the primary remains before the courts.
The latest suit also comes weeks after the APC reaffirmed Adeola as its recognised candidate for the 2027 Ogun governorship election.
The party said in August that Adeola remained its duly recognised candidate and that his name, alongside that of his running mate, Kudirat Abiodun Adegunwa-Balogun, had been submitted to INEC.
The APC also maintained that Hunye had been suspended from the party.
According to the party, the suspension followed a decision by executives of Hunye’s ward in Tube, Ipokia Local Government Area, which was subsequently ratified at the local government and state levels.
The national leadership said the suspension affected his standing within the party.
Hunye has rejected that position.
He has questioned how the party could regard him as suspended from membership in April and still allow him to purchase the governorship expression of interest and nomination forms later that month.
The aspirant said he paid N50 million for the forms on April 28, 2026, after the date the APC said his suspension took effect.
“If I was genuinely suspended on April 7, why did the party accept my N50m payment on April 28? Why was my application processed, and why was I cleared by the screening committee to contest the primary?” he asked.
Hunye said the issue was one of the reasons he decided to pursue the matter through the courts.
He also said he was not asking the court to simply pronounce him the APC candidate.
Rather, he wants the court to examine the process through which the party arrived at its candidate and determine whether the relevant provisions of the law were followed.
“I am not asking the media or the public to declare me the candidate. I am asking the judiciary to look at the process, examine the facts under the Electoral Act, and allow the law to take its proper course,” Hunye stated.
The former aspirant further denied claims that his legal battle was being sponsored by the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate in Ogun State, Ladi Adebutu.
Hunye described the allegation as an attempt to divert attention from the issues raised in his legal challenge.
He said his actions were based on his decision to seek judicial determination of what he described as irregularities in the APC nomination process.
The national party leadership also dismissed Hunye’s claim to the ticket and warned against political dealings with him in the name of the APC.
The party said it had directed its lawyers to take legal steps over what it described as misrepresentation and impersonation.
Hunye, however, has insisted that he is pursuing available legal remedies rather than claiming a ticket outside the judicial process.
The 2027 Ogun governorship election is scheduled for February 6, 2027, according to the timetable published by INEC.
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