SENATOR TOKUNBO AFIKUYOMI PLOTS COMEBACK
2 min read
Afikuyomi
From the abyss of political oblivion, Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi is staging a comeback. The erstwhile Senator who has been on self-imposed exile in London and politically inactive is once again romancing the game that brought him fame and fortune.
However, some set of people are of the opinion that Afikuyomi’s comeback is triggered by the avarice and allure attached to power, but the rotund two-time senator who first served Lagos Central Senatorial District between 1999 and 2003 before moving to the Lagos West Senatorial District from 2003 to 2007 looks unperturbed by such defamatory allegation. He’s angling to replace his successor, Senator Ganiyu Solomon, who is rumoured to be nursing an undying ambition to rule Lagos State. How this would play out in the long run remains to be seen considering Afikuyomi’s withering political influence in Lagos.
In the run-up to the 2007 governorship election, Senator Afikuyomi threw his hat into the ring, but because Asiwaju Bola Tinubu had anointed incumbent Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola as his successor, he sought a different platform to actualise his ambition. He defected from the Action Congress to the All Nigeria People’s Party, ANPP, on which platform he contested and lost the governorship poll. Shamefacedly, he returned to the party and was appointed Commissioner for Tourism.
After the uproar that greeted his involvement in the acquisition of the Sunborn Yacht Hotel, he was quietly eased out after Fashola’s first term. Thereafter, he headed to Osun and was a ‘Special Assistant’ to Governor Rauf Aregbesola. He didn’t stay long in Osun before relocating to London.
Few days ago, the roly-poly politician was spotted during a retreat with the Speaker Lagos State House of Assembly Rt. Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, a move that some said was politically motivated. Some days after, it was gathered exclusively that Afikuyomi spent some quality days at the prestigious Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos, consulting with the top echelons of the All Progressive Congress, APC party before scampering out of the country to Accra, Ghana.
