Dirty Daniel at his Judas job again -By Adelekan Sanni
Going by the reports in the media in the last 48 hours about Gbenga Daniel, the senator representing Ogun East in the National Assembly, one cannot but wonder about his devious antics. Daniel, a serial betrayal, has been trying to portray himself as a staunch supporter of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and as a loyal party man when all indications point to him as a thoroughbred Judas on the political terrain. Indeed, he has just disappointed some of his attack dogs like Steve Oliyide who thought he would make them his aides in the Red Chamber and had, in the last few months, gone on overdrive doing his dirty jobs. By now, these charlatans left to die out and rot in political oblivion must have realized that betrayal is ingrained in Daniel’s DNA.
In the build-up to the election of Godswill Akpabio as Senate President, some senators, including Daniel, went to see the president. Having received intelligence that Daniel was, as usual, hobnobbing with the opposition, the president was said to have told him: “Senator Daniel, I hope you will not bring your antics to the National Assembly o.” The president told him to remove the Judas toga around him this time around because it was quite unbecoming of a person his age and status, and that it would shred his personality if he continued in the same mould. Some of the senators were said to have shaken their heads, having read so many things about Daniel’s dark history. And so in order to prove to the senators that he was no betrayer, Daniel laid the blame on the doorsteps of Governor Dapo Abiodun. He started weaving the narrative that the governor was fighting him because he had fully supported Tinubu’s ambition!
In the build-up to the presidential primaries of APC, Daniel was not a delegate. And neither was he in a position to nominate delegates because the ward, local government and state excos of the party had been inaugurated before he joined the party. He had no influence on the ward, local government and state excos. The primary was an internal affair of the party and as soon as it was over, what was expected of every member of the party was to work for the success of the party and its candidate. And this was exacty what Governor Abiodun did.
Even though the Governor was not overly enthusiastic about Daniel becoming a senator, he had to concede the slot to him following moral suasion and appeals by traditional rulers to the effect that a former governor should not be disgraced. The Governor soft-pedaled. He then threw his full weight in mobilization and logistics behind him (Daniel), knowing that it was the right thing to do.
The issue that happened at that time, which some of Daniel’s followers misconstrued as an attempt by the Governor to withdraw support from their principal, was merely procedural. Immediately Daniel won his ticket, he quickly rolled out his campaign structure without waiting for the nod and input of the party whose senatorial ticket he had just won. He was, as usual, so full of himself, believing that he could go it alone. Yet in a political structure, a senator cannot just be campaigning in isolation. The due process is that the hands of the presidential candidate of the party would be raised by the leader of the party and immediately that his done, a date would be fixed where the state would commence its own campaign. It is during that campaign that the Governor would raise the hands of the three senatorial candidates and the nine House of Reps members. But when Daniel was cautioned, his supporters took it as an affront and started casting aspersions on the Governor. Yet all the Governor was saying was that Daniel should follow the rules and regulations of the party.
Still, the Governor gave him all the necessary support for his election. However, in his accustomed Judas spirit, Daniel moved against the Governor immediately he won the Ogun East ticket. After collecting money from the Governor, he went to Chief Kessington Adebutu (Baba Ijebu) and collected N2bn to work against APC. He directed all his followers to work for Baba Ijebu’s son, Ladi Adebutu, and dislodge Governor Dapo Abiodun. Daniel was just a senator-elect, but he was already thinking about his re-election as a senator, for which purpose he felt he needed to dislodge Governor Abiodun, since they are both from Ogun East. He thought that taking out his helper was the best way to consolidate his power!!
In any case, working against his party was not a new thing to Daniel. In the AD after 1999, he worked against Chief Segun Osoba. He moved to PDP and used the instrumentality of President Olusegun Obasanjo to rig Osoba out of power in 2003. That was what severed his relationship with Asiwaju Tinubu. He was a PDP governor for eight years and because of his political shenanigans and manipulations, he ran into troubled waters with the state House of Assembly and leaders of PDP in the state, to the extent that he could not present a candidate for election as his successor. Ibikunle Amosun declared him persona non grata for eight years and it was Dapo Abiodun that gave him soft landing. It is this same Dapo Abiodun that Daniel is now fighting to a standstill.
Amosun, being a warlord, said at the time that if you give Daniel any space, he would take you out, so the best thing you can do is to take him out completely. And that is so true, because were it not for divine intervention, Daniel would have completely rubbished Governor Abiodun. This is a man who betrayed Tinubu and even Goodluck Jonathan, his leader, in 2015, simply because he was not made the South-West coordinator of the Jonathan re-election campaign.
In 2019, Atiku Abubakar gave him the position he had craved so badly in 2015, making him the Director General of his campaign organization. Yet immediately after Atiku lost the presidential election, Daniel quickly dumped him and joined APC. He was given a soft landing which made him to contest for the senatorial seat, but his heart was not in APC because his structure in PDP was still intact. It was this structure that he used against Dapo Abiodun during the March 18 governorship election in Ogun State. He instructed his people to freely collect mobilization from the Governor and the party but to work for Ladi Adebutu. What a born criminal! Thank God his devious antics could not derail Governor Abiodun’s re-election.
During the last election, the party, knowing Daniel’s chameleonic character, had to surreptitiously position two senators to be monitoring his activities. Daniel hobnobbed with all the aspirants because of money.
So when you look at Daniel properly, you see that he is a character that cannot be trusted; very deceitful, crafty and cunning, and diabolic. That’s so sad.
Sanni wrote this through adelekhansan@aol.com
