The Ogun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has knocked former governor of the state, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, over his latest interview in the media, describing it as “drama of absurdity and cocktails of lies.”
Daniel, who presently represents Ogun East senatorial district at the red chamber of the National Assembly, had granted a media interview, where he alleged that Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun is still in dagger drawn with him for supporting President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, during the APC presidential primaries of 2022, among other allegations.
Reacting to Daniel’s interview on Monday, the Assistant Publicity Secretary of the APC in the state, Olusola Ogunsanya, in a statement issued and made available to newsmen in Abeokuta, the state capital, stressed that the said interview was an “embodiment of falsehood and blatant lies.”
The statement averred that at no time did Daniel make a definite position to support the President, accusing him of double standards and pecuniary tendencies.
The statement also further accused Daniel of supporting the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and it’s candidates during the last general elections in Ogun State, alleging that the former governor collected money to the tune of N2 billion from the Adebutu’s and worked against his party, the APC.
It claimed that the party and Governor Abiodun rescued Daniel at the point of his political oblivion, adding that the former governor had displayed an act of ingratitude by his action.
The statement said, “Given the general perception about the former governor and his controversial image across Nigeria, it is basically needless to grant the man of many colours the dignity of a response. However, considering the power and passion of the media, especially beyond the state and for the benefit of many of our citizens in the Diaspora, we have decided to set the records straight and place Daniel where he pathetically belongs.
“In the first place, the lawmaker, by his antecedents in private business and in power, painted a picture of dishonesty, making many to wonder how he managed to get near the power corridor, to the extent of becoming the governor of a state like Ogun.
“Every Nigerian in perfect consciousness of political events since 1999 knows Daniel as being chameleonic in appearance and deed; his unstable carriage with vague, perpetual laughter appropriately depict his dangerous persona, cocktail of lies and duplicity. His Sunday interview, which stood logic and truth on their heads was the latest in the series, as he relentlessly pursued myopic and selfish interest.
“It is laughable to hear Daniel talking about his comradeship in the progressive fold and claiming that Governor Abiodun was not part of the fold between 1998 and 1999, when everyone is aware of how Daniel, with his sneaky Machiavellian tactics and maneuvers surreptitiously dislodged a progressive party in the state in 2003 and became governor on the platform of the PDP.
“There is no record of Daniel’s role in Tinubu’s emergence as governor in Lagos State in 1999. In 2003, he contested under the PDP and not the defunct Alliance for Democracy, AD, so what structure was he talking about? He ruled for eight years as a PDP governor, before Ibikunle Amosun dislodged him and declared him persona non grata in the state, confining him to oblivion and castrating his businesses.
“This is the same man who was rescued from political ignominy by Governor Abiodun against strong resistance from party members, who were well apprised of what he represented. His liberation from the political oblivion into which he threw himself out of greed became necessary after his party, the PDP, lost the presidential election in 2019. Many were taken aback by the speed with which Daniel dumped his principal, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and the PDP, despite his position as the Director General of the Atiku Abubakar Campaign organization.
“Daniel, an outlier of outsider in the APC during the presidential primaries of June 2022, who was neither a delegate nor had a single delegate from Ogun State, claimed that he supported Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu against Governor Dapo Abiodun’s wish. What a shameless merchant of falsehood!
“To put it succinctly, Governor Abiodun, being a genuine leader and a progressive, never worked against his party, APC, unlike Senator Daniel. And to give credence to his unflinching commitment and loyalty to the party, as soon as Asiwaju Tinubu emerged the presidential candidate of the APC, he immediately deployed all his political machineries and structures to support him, stoutly resisting all the gang-up within the fold, spearheaded by Daniel and his co-travellers. During the February 25 election, he won the state for Asiwaju Tinubu by a wide margin.
“That was quite unlike Daniel, who for filthy lucre, criminally connived with the PDP, after allegedly collecting N2 billion from Chief Kessington Adebutu and worked against the APC and its candidates in the presidential and gubernatorial elections.
“Happily, President Tinubu knows more than any other person the dangerous antics of Daniel and what he represents in the Nigeria’s political circles, and was alleged to have taunted him in the presence of some senators, when he advised him to work on his reputation as a serial betrayal, but a leopard will never change its spots.
“We, therefore, implore the former governor to turn a new leaf from his now legendary dubious political antics, act of ingratitude and political prostitution that have dishonourably marked his political career over the years with matchless notoriety and infamy. These are indeed unbecoming of a man of his age.”
