Encomium
MRS. Morenike Adesina-Williams, chairman of Igando/Ikotun Local Council Development Area (LCDA), has denied having any romantic affair with the Supervisory Councillor for Works, Mr. Olohunwa Akinsulire, a.k.a Arizona, of the council.
Adesina-Williams in an exclusive interview with ENCOMIUM Weekly said she is legally married to Dr. Dayo Williams and therefore cannot be married or have a romantic affair with anybody.
Her words, “I am legally married to my husband, Dr. Dayo Williams. You can go and meet Arizona’s family whether I am married to them or not. I don’t know anything about what they are saying.
“We are from the same ward and we always have our meeting together. So, there is no way I will not send him on errand. I can send anybody on errand. I don’t know anything about what they are talking about.”
But when we asked her if it is true that Arizona’s wife confronted her for having an affair with her husband, this was her response, “Me? You can go and put it down like that in your paper. It is then you will know that those who sent you will not be able to save you. Because the wife is there at home, I know those who are doing this. It is when you are contesting or coming out for a position that you will hear people talking, talking, talking. Me, I am not afraid of anybody o.”
Mr. Olohunwa Akinsulire, a.k.a Arizona, also responded to our enquiry. When we asked him whether it is true that he was having a romantic affair with the chairman of the LCDA, his response was, “Even if it is so, whose business is it?” But later he said, “It is a big lie. My wife is right her beside me and she can confirm it to you.
“People are saying so because we are very close. We have known each other even before she became the chairman. I was also close to the former chairman, Ola. People are saying all these because she is coming out for second term.”
He further alleged that those behind the rumour are clamouring for an indigene of the LCDA to become the next chairman.
“There is a problem in the LCDA. The problem is that of the Awori and the non-indigene issue. People are fighting her because she is a non-indigene. When the indigenes were there, what did they do? Since she became chairman, we have constructed 11 roads. This thing (allegation) has political undertone.”
Mr. Akinsulire, however, confirmed to us that it is true he is always riding her jeep (official car) but said that is not enough reason for people to say they are having a romantic affair. “My boys (hanger-ons) drive my own car too. Does that mean I am sleeping with them or that I am gay? I can drive any car that I like.”
He also confirmed that they both usually travel out of Lagos to Ondo State in aso ebi (uniform dress) but said such outings are for political meetings.
He added that he did the same thing with previous chairmen of the LCDA, when they were campaigning for Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State. “It is all politics. This rumour has been around for sometime now. It is not today.”
Mr. Akinsulire also obliged us by giving the phone to his wife, who confirmed to us that she initially suspected that her husband was having an affair with Mrs. Adesina-Williams but later got to know that the relationship between them was strictly based on politics.
We asked her if it is true she confronted her husband for displaying the chairman’s portrait in their sitting room, and this was her response: “Yes, it is true. But when my husband told me that he wanted to put it in the office but could not get the key that day, that is why he brought it home, I agreed with him.”
Is it also true you confronted the chairman personally for having an affair with your husband? we asked. “Yes,” she said. “But that was at the initial stage when a lot of things were not clear to me. But later, when things were explained to me by my husband and the chairman, I now knew there was nothing going on between them.”
But we gathered that the chairman has been sponsoring your trips to Dubai in order to pacify you. Is that true, we asked again. “Yes, it is true. I usually go in the company of the chairman’s daughter.”
For almost two years’ reign of Mrs. Morenike Adesina-Williams as the chairman of Igando/Ikotun Local Council Development Authority (LCDA), tongues have been wagging on who she has virtually handed over the running of the council to Mr. Akinsulire who is alleged to be her lover.
Mr. Akinsulire is said to have capitalized on this to ride roughshod on other political office holders of the council, to the extent that all their entitlements were not given to them.
Many also complained that the chairman made her only daughter, Mope Williams an official of the council (a position formerly held by wives of the chairmen of the council). Under this guise, the daughter who is a mother of three children has been using the council’s funds to travel abroad as an official of the council. Such trips to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on the council funds was confirmed by Mrs. Esther Akinsulire, the wife of Mr. Olohunwa Akinsulire, the chairman’s alleged lover.
– TOLANI ABATTI
