as She Clocks 60 Tommorow
Yes, many years ago, they encountered each other and struck a blissful friendship, Gbenga Bareehu Ashafa, like the proverbial triple pillar of the world, became Folasade’s version of the Aeolian Harp. Folasade, like a practiced possessor and player of the Aeolian Harp, pulled at the strings of Gbenga’ heart. The effect was awesome.
If friendship was rewarding for the duo, falling in love with each other was liberating. Ask Bareehu. He will proudly tell you any day that loving Folasade was invigorating.
The passion and devotion he shared with her exposed him to priceless adventures in the meadows and everglades of love. Loving her was cathartic. Ordinarily, the height to which Senator Gbenga Ashafa adores his wife, Folashade, should have been laid bare tomorrow as he harnesses his cash, contacts and connections to celebrate his lifelong partner as she turns 60. Though Senator Ashafa is a practicing Moslem, the birthday ‘girl’ is a devout Christian.
Her birthday celebrations would tee off today with an Islamic prayer session at the Grandview Plaza, Magodo. Tomorrow, Monday, there would be a Christian thanksgiving service at a choice events centre in the heart of Victoria Island, Lagos. Knowing his social antecedents, one would have expected that the party would shake the roots of high society to its foundations and remain on the lips of guests for eons to come. However, in view of the fact that the fasting period has begun, sources said Senator Ashafa would not throw a giddy or gaudy feast; there would be no rivers of champagne and cognacs, or a long line of canapés and gourmet foods. Rather, after the thanksgiving service, there would be light entertainment for guests and the whole affair is expected to last by 4pm. Thereafter, the Ashafas and a sprinkling of guests would visit charity homes dear to them.
Ashafa, the senator representing Lagos East, and Folashade have been married since 1979. While he has gone on to build an enviable political profile, Folashade, nee Edun, retired as an assistant director at the Federal Ministry of Information and Communication in 2005, after twenty-three years of service. Now a big time entrepreneur and philanthropist, Folashade runs two homeware and gift stores in Lagos while occasionally organising soup kitchens for the elderly and an annual Christmas celebration for less privileged children in Ibeju-Lekki
FROM LAGOS TO OGUN… TALE OF A POLITICAL ORPHAN
Something is seriously wrong with Senator Olamilekan Adeola aka Yayi. The Senator representing Lagos West at the National Assembly, probably suffers a bad case of amnesia. Maybe not. Maybe he has simply chosen to treat the lives and destinies of the Lagos West electorate with contempt just because they are helpless to curtail him. As your read, Yayi has launched a desperate and ill-advised campaign to emerge as the All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in Ogun State at the forthcoming gubernatorial election. Recently, he expressed his confidence in Yewa people of the state claiming he was sure that they would unquestioningly accept his candidacy soon after his anointment for the role by his party’s hierarchy.
It is still early in the day but the aspirations of Senator Solomon Adeola Yayi to govern Ogun State may be a stillbirth after all. Though a senator representing Lagos West, Yayi’s sight has been set on taking over from Governor Ibikunle Amosun whose tenure runs out in 2019. There is no love lost between Yayi and Amosun despite both belonging to the same political party, the APC. He is seen as an interloper who wants to ride on his closeness to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to usurp the political arrangement in the state.
Amosun does not fancy Yayi succeeding him based on this. The diminutive senator thought he could pitch his tent with the former governor of the state, Aremo Olusegun Osoba. Osoba and Amosun have been estranged since the latter’s first term. In fact, prior to the 2015 elections, Osoba fought tooth and nail, even presenting a candidate on his rejuvenated Social Democratic Party, to upstage Amosun. Amosun eventually won the reelection battle. Seeing this lacuna, Yayi figured he was better off with Osoba. Thus, he has been patronising the Septuagenarian and currying the favour of the people around him. Yayi however went overboard, according to inside sources, when he started going about town, saying he had been endorsed by Osoba. Sources in Osoba’s camp have however disputed this claim, insisting that the former governor has no political arrangement with Yayi.
TROUBLE IN PARADISE…INTRIGUES AS ALAO ARISEKOLA’S FAMILY BATTLE OVER HIS ESTATE
•LUST FOR INHERITANCE SPLITS BILLIONAIRE’S FAMILY INTO THREE UNITS
Things fall apart in the household of late AbdulAzeez Alao Arisekola. The centre cannot hold again amid his raucous clan. Trouble and disaster looms above the homestead of the late Ibadan billionaire as his 30 children, wives and extended family members slug it out in a no holds barred contest for his estate. Highlife findings revealed that the late billionaire’s children are divided into three camps, with each faction laying claims to his estate scattered across Ibadan, Oyo, Lagos and London, United Kingdom.
While one of the groups is reportedly led by Khadijat Alao-Straub, Arisekola’s first daughter, the others have Ismaila, Arisekola’s first son and Abdullahi, the son of the late business mogul arraigned over allegation of N1.1billion oil subsidy scam. The children have been quarrelling with one another over who should control some of the properties, including their dad’s tank farms in Lagos and flour mill in Ibadan. Arisekola also has substantial investments in First Bank Plc among other blue chip companies in the country and these among other properties are being hotly contested by his wives, children and other relatives.
