Saharareporters, New York
That the Ogun State governor, Justus Olugbenga Daniel is in big trouble is no longer news! Saharareporters had earlier revealed that Ogun State was already penciled down by President Obasanjo hitmen for EFCC-styled impeachment moves. By the end of last week, the state governor’s neck might have moved on to the chopping block. Last week, Mr. Gbenga Daniel confessed in public that 702 vouchers were missing from the state’s accountant general’s office. This led to the arrest of 12 senior level civil servants and subsequent detention of an unyielding political opponent to Mr. Daniel, Mr. Dipo Dina.
These arrests and public outcry might be all of what was Otunba Gbenga Daniel (OGD) shiny moment aided by his friends at the top hierarchy of the Nigeria Police Force, especially Mr. Tunji Alapinni a former police spokesperson who is now a top police officer and good friends with Gov. Gbenga Daniel could muster to save the drowning man.
The real Aso Rock script kicked in during the week. The EFCC that had been laying low around the state capital, Abeokuta for sometime now has come in the open, the state’s accountant general, Mr. Salau was suddenly arrested and whisked away to Lagos to answer questions about the “missing vouchers” and concrete allegations of illegal deductions from local governments’ allocations in the state. More seriously the governor was accused of questionable reimbursements for himself and his well traveled wife in what appeared to be frivolous trips that aided the governor’s personal business rather than the official business of Ogun State. These reimbursement runs into billions of naira The governor is not denying all of these allegations as such, in fact he has summoned another “stakeholders meeting” for Abeokuta today in order to explain what has been going on to the state “stakeholders”.
Saharareporters gathered from very highly reliable sources that the embattled governor is facing the battle of his life from “Baba” (as Nigeria’s president Obasanjo is fondly called) in Aso Rock for propping up Fola Adeola to contest against Iyabo Bello-Obasanjo, Ogun state commissioner of health and first daughter. As soon as Fola Adeola declared his intention to run for the same position as Obasanjo’s daughter, he was promptly removed from the headship of the National Pension Commission (NPC) a juicy position to which he was named by the president a few months earlier. OGD was warned but continued to back Fola Adeola against Iyabo Bello-Obasanjo who had to engage in physical fights with the state governor. By last weekend, Iyabo had emerged as one of the senatorial flag bearer for the PDP in Ogun State. It was also gathered that Gbenga Daniel like former Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose did not really support Obasanjo for his third term ambition; they were both overheard by Obasanjo’s people making jokes about the third term ambition of Obasanjo. The final reason adduced was that the governor, Mr. Gbenga Daniel cheated Obasanjo to the tune of N400 million in the presidential library fund raiser. It was not made clear how this happened, but another source said the governor collected some money on behalf of the project and never delivered it to Obasanjo’s library fund. Only for Obasanjo to learn that OGD was using Gani Fawehinmi as his lawyer to defend him on sundry issues at the same time that Gani was challenging the presidential library launch in court.
The next few weeks will be crucial to the survival of the Southwestern governor who cast himself as a re-incarnate of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, generously courted the media and as some critics put it, “did very well for himself by looting the treasury of Ogun State”.
In all of OGD’s travail lies a political game plan by Obasanjo. A source told us last week that Baba’s daughter and Ogun State commissioner for health, Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello currently a senatorial flag bearer, may have been tapped for the position of governor in Ogun State, since her party primary senatorial victory shows that she is politically “sellable”.
Meanwhile, Mr. Gbenga Daniel is kicking and cursing his Lagos State counterpart Ahmed Bola Tinubu for the negative media coverage that has engulfed his office. Saharareporters could not confirm if Bola Tinubu is playing any special role, but we can reveal that the Lagos State governor has his own axe to grind with Mr. Daniel. A close source to both men said they were really close before Gbenga Daniel became the governor of Ogun State in 2003, while Bola Tinubu was the governor in Lagos between 1999 -2003; it was OGD who took care of his interests (shares) at the Bond Bank. Bola Tinubu traveled to Ogun State to meet with him a lot during this period but soon as OGD became the governor of Ogun State it was alleged that he shortchanged Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Lagos State governor might have gone on the offensive against OGD as a result.
Whatever might be the case with Otunba Gbenga Daniel will unravel in the next few weeks. His commissioner of information, Mr. Niran Malaolu quietly resigned last week and there are serious concerns that his safety might be in jeopardy leading to Ogun State government last week to issue a disclaimer over threats to his life. Already, the state governor has adduced several reasons to his resignation including the one purporting that Niran Malaolu was “hypertensive” but the real deal might be in Niran’s letter of resignation exclusively obtained by Saharareporters where he listed sustenance of democracy, freedom of thought and opinion and expression of same in a decent society, the need for good governance, poverty alleviation and economic development of the nation using Ogun State as a model as reasons why he joined the government of Gbenga Daniel. The pressure has mounted on the ex-commissioner to declare that he was leaving the cabinet to engage in a “doctorate degree in journalism” according to a draft statement obtained by Saharareporters which bore the handwriting of Governor Gbenga Daniel. Meanwhile, Mr. Kayode Samuel has been named to Niran Malaolu’s former position and the state governor’s propaganda machinery has gone on all four with the recruitment of Yoruba film –star and comedian, Yemi Shodimu as the special adviser on information and strategy; these two are expected to work in tandem with former Daily Punch reporter, Wale Adedayo who until now has the done the yeoman job of fending off attacks against OGD, beer parlor style!
A source close to the State Governor summed it up this way: “It is the poison of publicity that is about to kill Gbenga Daniel that we have always warned him against, he doesn’t like to hear the truth because he lied a lot, he courted the tabloid journalists and helped himself to monies that did not belong to him, but he will go down in ignominy because he was never real”
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