Desmond Elliot wins, Funke Akindele loses, Oworu controversy… top news of last week

Last week was eventful in showbiz. TheCable Lifestyle examines the top entertainment stories that got tongues wagging in the past seven days.

DESMOND ELLIOT WINS STATE ASSEMBLY SEAT FOR THIRD TERM

Despite the rejection, constant bant, and criticism on social media, Desmond Elliot won his re-election bid to represent the people of the Surulere constituency at the Lagos state house of assembly.

Elliot, who contested on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC), secured 17,837 votes to defeat Adebayo Bode of the Labour Party (LP) who polled 7,822 votes.

This is the third time he will be contesting and winning the Surulere constituency seat at the state assembly.

The politician has — in the past few years — been on the receiving end of social media criticism.

In 2020, the lawmaker was criticised after he declared that he “is a product of political godfatherism.”

Also, following the shooting of protesters at the Lekki toll gate in the same year, a video of Elliot referring to #EndSARS activists as “children” at the Lagos state assembly surfaced.

The politician was thereafter labeled “Nigeria Twitter’s number one scapegoat”, with memes and banter from youths straying his way.

The lawmaker recently extended an olive branch to the Nigerian youth over his controversial comments in 2020.

FUNKE AKINDELE LOSES HER LGA TO SANWO-OLU

Funke Akindele, the running mate to Olajide ‘Jandor’ Adediran, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos, lost the state election to Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the incumbent governor. 

Sanwo-Olu, the candidate of the APC, secured a second term as governor of Lagos after polling 762,134 votes to win the election.

The LP came second with 312,329 votes, while Jandor trailed in third place with 62,449 votes.

TheCable Lifestyle earlier reported how Akindele, the deputy governorship candidate of the PDP in Lagos state, lost by a huge margin in her LGA — Ikorodu —  to Sanwo-Olu.

The Ikorodu-born actress also lost to the governor at her polling unit.

OWORU’S LP CANDIDATURE CONTROVERSY

Olumide Oworu, the actor, became the subject of conversation on social after his name was not seen in the INEC result sheet — despite the intense campaign to unseat Elliot from the Surulere 1 constituency seat in the Lagos house of assembly.

On February 28, the actor announced his campaign to represent Surulere at the state assembly on the platform of the Labour Party.

The announcement shocked many because it came eight months after the deadline for the submission of nomination forms by politicians contesting for seats at the state houses of assembly.

Although Elliot won the election, there was, however, controversy after INEC’s result sheet captured the name Adebayo Bode — instead of Oworu — as the candidate of the Labour Party.

When TheCable Lifestyle reached out to Dayo Ekong, the Lagos chairperson of LP, on the matter, she insisted that Oworu is the bonafide candidate of the party in the just concluded Lagos assembly election.

Ekong also said the party had written to INEC for a change of name but the correction was not reflected by the commission before the poll.

DAVIDO DELETES PROFILE PHOTO, POSTS ON IG 

Davido shocked many of his fans and followers on Tuesday after he deleted his profile picture and thousands of posts on his Instagram account.

The singer, however, retained 50 posts with only three visible; that of Ifeanyi, his late son, his performance at the World Cup in Qatar, and photos of him and Chioma.

In solidarity with the Afrobeats star, Israel DMW, his logistics manager; Ubi Franklin, the music executive; Asa Asika, his manager; and Bobo Ajudua, his lawyer, also removed their profile pictures on Instagram.

With over 26 million followers on Instagram and 13 million on Twitter, Davido’s influence has increasingly grown on social media and in the entertainment space in the 10-year span of his music career.