Oyelola Yisa Ashiru (Lola Ashiru)
Senator, Kwara South (Senatorial) · APC
Senator Oyelola Yisa Ashiru (APC, Kwara South) is a two-term senator and architect serving as Deputy Senate Leader from October 2023 after replacing Minister of Works Dave Umahi. His 10th Senate legislative output includes a high-profile motion on insecurity in Kwara South (October 2025) that produced a Senate resolution summoning the Defence Minister and security chiefs and calling for a permanent military base in Ifelodun LGA, as well as a motion on kidnapping legislation (November 2025) that advanced a bill classifying kidnapping as terrorism with mandatory death penalty. Constituency-side, eleven projects totalling N1.8 billion were allocated to Kwara South in the 2024 federal budget, including road works in Offa, ICT centres, borehole construction in Isin LGA, and school renovation in Irepodun LGA, though independent verification of delivery status is absent from available public sources. Empowerment initiatives — agroforestry training, ICT skills programmes distributing laptops to youths — are documented in national press. The integrity dimension carries a significant cloud: the NDLEA alleged in October 2024 that illicit drugs were recovered from the senator's GRA Ilorin residence (February 2024 raid) and that aides, including one convicted and jailed in June 2024, operated drug-related activity linked to his address. The senator denied wrongdoing and the Senate constituted a six-member ad-hoc committee to investigate; no criminal charge against Ashiru personally has been filed in publicly available records as at June 2026. His 2026 oscillation between a governorship declaration (February 2026) and a return to the Senate race — in which he lost the APC ticket for Kwara South to Muheebah Dankaka — further clouds his conduct record. The overall picture is mixed: above-average senatorial leadership rank and documented motion activity, offset by unverified constituency project delivery and a serious, unresolved integrity controversy.
This grade rates performance in office, not any person’s guilt. Criminal matters appear above only as their court status. How we grade.
Sources16
- 1APC's Senator Ashiru Wins Kwara South Senatorial SeatThisDay Live · 2023-02-27
- 2Senator Ashiru Replaces Umahi As Deputy Senate LeaderChannels Television · 2023-10-18
- 4Kwara Senator Empowers 60 Youths with ICT Skills and LaptopsPunch Newspapers
- 5Two years in office: How Senator Lola Ashiru is transforming Kwara SouthThe Informant247
- 6Senate summons Defence Minister, Service Chiefs, IGP over insecurity in Kwara SouthVanguard News · 2025-10-08
- 7Insecurity: Senate Demands Military Base In Kwara SouthChannels Television · 2025-10-08
- 9Bid to Amend Senate Rules to Facilitate Presiding Officers' Return StalledTV360 Nigeria
- 10NDLEA Says Senator Ashiru's House Warehouses Illicit Drugs, Aides ProsecutedThisDay Live · 2024-10-22
- 11We found drugs in Senator Ashiru's home — NDLEAICIR Nigeria · 2024-10-22
- 12Senator Ashiru calling us corrupt because we found drugs at his home, NDLEA claimsTheCable · 2024-10-21
- 13NDLEA Fires Back, Says Nigerian Senator Ashiru's Criticisms Stem From Recent Raid, Recovery Of Drugs From His House, Arrest Of AidesSahara Reporters · 2024-10-21
- 14Senate to probe NDLEA allegations against Kwara lawmakerPunch Newspapers · 2024-10-22
- 16Kwara APC rejects Deputy Senate Leader's third term bidPunch Newspapers