The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has received a formal petition calling for the investigation and potential disqualification of Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (popularly known as YAYI), the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate for Ogun State in the upcoming 2027 elections.
The petition, filed by Abeokuta resident Adekunle Shomorin, alleges that Senator Adeola and the APC have severely violated the donation and expenditure limits established by the Electoral Act 2026. The petitioner emphasizes that the claims are based directly on the Senator’s own public publications and media reports.
Allegations of Anonymous Donors and a 119-Vehicle Fleet
According to the complaint, Senator Adeola released a press statement on his official Facebook page on September 28, 2026, thanking 22 donors for providing his campaign with 119 vehicles, which included buses, an ambulance, and pick-up trucks. A primary concern raised in the petition is transparency; several donors were publicly identified only by nicknames such as “Citiside Brother,” “Polanco,” and “OJ,” without accompanying legal names or verifiable addresses.
The document highlights that the largest single contributor, identified as Mr. Akintunde Armstrong, was credited with donating 26 buses. Furthermore, public reports from May 2026 indicated that the Yayi Progressives Movement—convened by the same Mr. Armstrong—announced a massive contribution of N1 billion in cash alongside 27 branded buses for the Senator’s governorship project. The petitioner argues that these contributions should be aggregated to determine if the movement and its convener operate as a single donor circumventing legal limits.
The core of the legal challenge relies on Sections 92 and 92(8) of the Electoral Act 2026, which cap individual donations to a candidate at N500 million and fix the absolute governorship election expenditure limit at N3 billion. The petitioner calculates that using a standard campaign vehicle like the Toyota HiAce as a benchmark, the 119 donated vehicles would hold an estimated value of N3.33 billion if purchased at a “Nigerian-used” rate of N28 million each, or a staggering N10.7 billion if bought brand new at N90 million per unit.
Even at the lowest used-vehicle valuation, the total value of the donated fleet would exceed the N3 billion statutory expenditure limit before accounting for the reported N1 billion cash donation, campaign rallies, personnel, and fuel. Additionally, Mr. Armstrong’s 26 buses would independently breach the N500 million individual donation limit if each vehicle is valued at anything above N19.23 million.
In the formal requests detailed in the submission, the petitioner urges INEC to invoke its regulatory powers to direct Senator Adeola and the APC to formally disclose the full legal identities and addresses of all 22 donors. The petition also calls on the commission to compel the campaign to produce chassis numbers and invoices to establish the true market value of the vehicles, require the APC to file interim statements of campaign contributions and expenses, and ultimately disqualify Senator Adeola from the 2027 ballot entirely if an investigation confirms he knowingly accepted funds exceeding the N500 million donation cap or breached the N3 billion expenditure limit.
At the time of this report, the APC and Senator Adeola’s campaign organization have not issued a public response addressing the specific legal and financial calculations presented in the petition.
