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CHIEF OLUSOLA OKE, LLB, LLM, B.L, SAN.

Chief Olusola Alexander Oke is a Nigerian lawyer and veteran politician. He was born on 7th April 1956 in Ilowo, a coastal town in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State. His father was from Ilaje, and his mother hailed from Imoru town in Ose Local Government Area of Ondo state.

Growing up, Chief Olusola Oke attended UNA Primary School, Ode-Ilowo, between 1961 and 1963. At age 7, he dropped out of school in 1963 and became a professional fisherman who lived and earned his living from the creek of the rivers in Ilaje and its environs. At this juncture of his life, he wrestled with the wicked conspiracy of poverty and social deprivation that almost prevented him from being educated. It is noteworthy that between 1963 and 1973, he engaged in subsistence high-sea fishing, a career in which he acquired great fame.

His quest for knowledge compelled him to abandon fishing to the amazement of his fishermen colleagues and returned to Methodist Primary School, Ilepete, in 1973 to complete his primary school education. He later proceeded to Methodist Secondary Modern School, Ilepete, where he graduated in 1976. He attended Ilaje Grammar School, Atijere, in Ilaje Local Government, where he bagged his WAEC in 1980. Oke taught briefly as an auxiliary teacher at Happy City College Ayetero, Ilaje Local Government, and Methodist High School, Okitipupa.

In October 1981, he was admitted to the Ondo State School of Arts and Science, Ikare, where he was when the prestigious University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) offered him admission, in 1982, to study Law. By this opportunity, he attended the prestigious University of Ife, a citadel for intellectual giants that was established within the vortex of Yoruba origin, by the evergreen sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and other leaders of the emerging post-colonial south-western Nigeria.

He bagged a degree in law from this renowned University in 1986, from where he proceeded to the Nigerian Law School and was later called to the Nigerian bar in 1987. He earned his masters degree in Law from the University of Abuja in 2023.

He joined Olufemi Lanlehin and Co., a law firm in Ikeja, Lagos, in 1987. From there, he moved to Okitipupa to establish his own Law Firm, Olusola Oke and Associates, on 14th July, 1988. His resolve to commence his Law practice early enough was encouraged by his easy grasp of routines and outstanding delivery in all the cases he participated in. He had always seen Law as an embodiment of the moral values, sentiments, and dispositions of the people and, therefore, he long resolved to employ it as an instrument of societal re-engineering, in line with the tenets of Roscoe Pound; and to earn his living from it too. He took that decision with a firm faith in God.

In 1996, he became the secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association, Okitipupa Branch. Between 1997 and year 2000, he was the chairman of the NBA, Okitipupa Branch. Also, between 1997 and year 2000, he was a member of the National Executive Committee of the NBA. His professional practice provided the platform that earned him the opportunity to blossom in politics and to join others in liberating his people.

As the National Legal Adviser of the PDP, between 2008 and 2012, he practised Law to its fullest and paved the way for equity and constitutionality to prevail, unhindered, in all the matters he handled.

Oke was a popular youth activist in the ranks of Ilaje Patriotic Front (IPF), a frontline youth pressure group in the late 80’s. The desire of the IPF was for the Ilaje people to get to the Promised Land socio-economically and politically. Members of the group employed their intellectual prowess, provided leadership, and ignited the thirst for development in the people. Through purposeful planning, commitment, and loyalty to the course of the people, they made a mark and created legendary marks in their community. The group later metamorphosed into a political group. The group, in recognition of Oke's stoic contributions, insisted on him going into politics. Despite the pressure of the group on him to join active politics, he stayed the course of his Law practice until 1991, when he was made Local Government Legal Adviser of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). From 1991 to 1992, Oke was a member of the Board of Internal Revenue in Ondo State. Since then, he has combined politics with his legal practice without necessarily leaving one for the other. He was elected member of the Federal House of Representatives, representing the llaje/Ese-Odo Federal Constituency in 1992. In 2000, he was appointed to the pioneer board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). At NDDC, his team executed and completed over two hundred and fifty projects. What he did on the board of NDDC, and the experience garnered, facilitated his appointment as the Executive Chairman of the Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC), another intervention agency, in 2004.

In 2005, he was nominated and served in the National Political Reform Conference, while he served as a member of the Presidential Technical Committee on Niger Delta in 2007. He was appointed the Chairman of the Federal Polytechnic Bida in 2009 and was also appointed Chairman of the National Steel Raw Materials Exploration Agency between 2009 and 2011.

He rose to the peak of his career by becoming Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 2017.

He was appointed Southwest Director, APC Presidential Campaign Organisation in 2019 and later appointed National Deputy Director, Legal Committee of the Buhari/Shettima Presidential Campaign in 2023.

Encouraged by his desire to offer more sacrificial service to humanity and be part of the processes of engineering more development in Ondo State, he has contested for the governorship seat twice in the Sunshine State.

He is married and blessed with children, who are professionals in their chosen careers.