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Tag: Gbenga Daniel

  • Ogun community protests monarch’s alleged illegal conduct

    Ogun community protests monarch’s alleged illegal conduct

    •It’s not true, says ruler

    Christians and Muslims from Onigbedu in Ewekoro Local Government Area, Ogun State, protested yesterday over the alleged illegal conduct of their monarch, Oba Matthew Ajibulu.

    The residents, who protested under the aegis of Onigbedu Community Development Association (CDA), stormed the state House of Assembly and the Governor’s Office to see Governor Ibikunle Amosun on their grievances.

    The residents, who accused the monarch of trying to foist Oro cult worship on the community, also accused him of setting a cocoa farm in the community on fire.

    They added they traditional ruler was harassing companies operating the community as well as trying to turn Onigbedu community into a place where hoodlums and thugs thrive.

    The scores of villagers said they did not want any religious practice in Onigbedu that would take the community back to “the primitive age, restrict people’s freedom of movement and make blood sacrifice a common sight.”

    They appealed to the governor and the legislators to stop Oba Ajibulu’s plan to erect the shrine.

    The CDA Chairman, Mr. Adebari Kassim, said since former Governor Gbenga Daniel, in the twilight of his administration, foisted Oba Ajibulu on the community, development, peace and harmony became elusive.

    He noted that suspected hoodlums and thugs connected to the monarch routinely make life difficult for visitors and residents.

    The CDA chief said investigation carried out by the community revealed that Ajibulu was not an indigene of Onigbedu, adding that the monarch came from Imeko-Afon in Yewa Local Government Area.

    The residents urged the governor to remove him from office in the interest of peace.

    Kassim added that Ajibulu is a parallel monarch as the community still has Oba Yunusa Akinmade as their traditional ruler when Daniel imposed Ajibulu on them.

    But in a telephone interview, Oba Ajibulu said his accusers might say whatever they like, adding that it would turned out later to be falsehood.

    Ajibulu said: “They can say whatever they want to say, but what I can tell you is that whatever they say or tell you is not true.”

    But Amosun, who praised the villagers for the civilised manner of expressing their grievances, said Oba Ajibulu would be summoned to appear before the appropriate authority to enable the government gets his own side of the matter.

    The governor, who spoke through the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Muyiwa Oladipo, urged the residents to remain law abiding while government look into their complaints.

    He said:”On your grievance, which you have shown, be rest assured Oba Ajibulu will be called upon to the Governor’s office tomorrow (today) morning and we will also hear his own side of the story. And we assure you we will sort it out amicably.”

  • ‘LP, PDP ‘ll work for Jonathan in Ogun’

    ‘LP, PDP ‘ll work for Jonathan in Ogun’

    Former Ogun State Governor Gbenga Daniel yesterday said that the Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will work together to actualise the second term ambition of President Goodluck Jonathan in the next year’s election.

    Daniel, an LP chieftain, explained that the President has performed, adding that the two parties will drum support for his continuity in office.

    The President has not unfolded his second term ambition. But, some individuals and groups have asked him to declare his interest, assuring him of support.

    Daniel, who spoke with reporters in Lagos, said power shift is also a priority in Ogun State.

    However, a section of the party has objected to Daniel’s support for the President from outside, urging him to come back to the PDP, which he deserted during the 2011 elections.

    Daniel said: “We need a better government in Ogun. If that means working with President Jonathan, PDP and LP, it does not matter. My support for President Jonathan is not surprising. I led his campaign in the Southwest in 2011.

    “I am working for him becausse I have looked at the terrain. For now, within the framework of contemporary challenges, he is better supported to have a second term. If there is another reason I should not support him, let them say it and we debate it.”

    The former governor added: “We need to maintain the equillibrum. Let President Jonathan have a second term and we will work for who will succeed him later. This country will not make progress, until we appreciate our responsibilities in governance. There is the need for consistency.”

    Daniel reflected on his defection from the PDP to the LP, saying that it was the best option at the time. He described the LP as a child of circumstances, stressing that it became the abode of PDP chieftains who were left in the cold, ahead of the 2011 polls.

    He stressed: “God helped me to build the PDP in Ogun State. My movement to other parties was not due to personal ambition. 40 PDP members, who wanted to contest elections as governor, deputy governor, and National Asembly and House of Assembly contenders, were left in the cold.

    “They said I should come and take the senatorial ticket. I said no. I could not abandon them. They had to go to the PPN. I stayed in the PDP. Later, I started the reconciliation in the PDP.”

    Daniel spoke on his ordeals in the hands of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), warning that a dangerous precedent has been established. The former governor blamed the media for browing issues out of proportion, adding that reporters have not been fair to him. He said, henceforth, successive administrations may face the same fire, after bowing out of office.

    He added: “There is a precedent in Ogun State. Therefore, if I have been arraigned in the court, successive governors will be arraigned. Some day, the cost of those roads will be explained.”

    Daniel alleged that there is capital flight in Ogun State because contractors are hired from outside by Governor Ibikunle Amosun.

    He said his successor had embarked on road expansion, instead of constructing new roads.

    Describing Amosun as a bold and courageous politician, Daniel said that “he does not apply that in the right direction”.

    He added: “he has expanded roads than I did, but the cost is another matter.”

    Daniel refuted the allegation of violence, saying that he is a man of peace.

     

     

  • LP has no working pact with Ogun PDP, says Kashamu

    LP has no working pact with Ogun PDP, says Kashamu

    Ogun State People Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain Prince Buruji Kashamu said yesterday that there was no working arrangement between the party and the Labour Party (LP).

    He said in a statement that former Governor Gbenga Daniel was a spoiler who betrayed the PDP.

    Kashamu said Daniel’s remarks about a working arrangement between the two parties were ill-motivated.

    He said: “As a leader of the PDP in Ogun State and Chairman, Organisation and Mobilisation Committee, PDP, South West, I wish to state that this statement is part of the grand plot by Daniel to hoodwink and mislead the good people of Ogun State.

    “He has had his time when he ruled the state for eight years and simple discretion would require that he quit the stage, or at best, play the role of an elder statesman. But since he has elected to continually play the spoiler, he should be told in unmistakable terms that so long as he continues to play his divisive politics of promoting LP, he should leave PDP out of his political flirting.

    “It is the height of betrayal that someone who rode on the platform of PDP to political prominence would want to undermine the same party because of his own selfish interest and over-bloated ego.

    “He wants to be the Alpha and Omega of any political party he finds himself. That is why he has sidelined the authentic Olabode Simeon-led State Executive Committee of the Labour Party in order to impose his stooges and puppets on the party. He has carried on with the same reckless abandon that was his undoing in spite of a subsisting court injunction that status quo should be maintained in the dispute that arose over the Labour Party structure. I wager that this is a potential landmine that many have not averred their minds to.”

    Kashamu said it was “incongruous and inconsistent that someone who claims to have left the PDP and is now in LP” would want to work for a PDP candidate at any level.

    “If PDP is not good enough for him to be part of, why work for its success and that of its candidates at any level? One would have expected him to remain in his Labour Party and leave us alone in PDP.

    “ He cannot be in LP and be talking of collaborating with PDP for any election. It is mischievous, to say the least.

    “If he is mouthing this in the hope that it could give him some soft-landing in his ongoing trial over his alleged involvement in criminal diversion of funds and conversion of land belonging to the Ogun State government for private use, then he is mistaken,” the statement added.

  • Daniel, Amosun disagree on Ogun’s economy

    Daniel, Amosun disagree on Ogun’s economy

    Former Governor Gbenga Daniel has again faulted the administration of his successor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, saying its programmes are destroying the state’s economic base.

    Daniel, who addressed a summit of the Labour Party (LP) at Ibiade, Ogun Waterside Local Government area, accused Amosun’s government of steadily  plunging the state into debt through  borrowing unnecessarily when it should be building on the legacies of the past administration.

    According to Daniel, Amosun was frustrating companies he had facilitated by his style of administration.

    He cited Dangote Group of Companies, which ought to have built a refinery in the state but changed the idea because of his successor’s programmes, lamenting that had the refinery been established, it would have absorbed no fewer than 30,000 workforce.

    Daniel said: “Ogun Waterside suppose to be the industrial base of Ogun State of the future, the result is the Free Trade zone in Ogun State. Many people do not understand the meaning of this Free Trade Zone. This is a very big industrial estate. The whole essence of that estate is for us to have the opportunity to have as many industries as possible in this local government.

     

     

     

    “On Olokola LNG, the project which suppose to be in Ode-Omi within this local government, is supposed to be the biggest investment of LNG in the world. But what happened to us in this place? You people made a mistake, you elected a governor who is not interested and because the governor is not doing what he supposed to do, the project has been abandoned since our last administration handed over three years ago.

    “The most painful of all is that before I left government, I have signed a contract with Dangote Group to establish the biggest refinery in Nigeria in Ode Omi and they’ve started the preliminary work. But unfortunately, when you people made the mistake and voted for this current governor, for one reason or the other, Ogun State has now lost the project to Lagos State. The refinery, which is being planned in Ode Omi, has the capacity to employ 30,000 people. We have lost that now because we don’t have a good governor.”

    But reacting, the state government dismissed Daniel’s allegations as “illogical,” saying  the former governor is known for making frivolous claims about Amosun’s programmes.

    Speaking through the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Alhaji Yusuph Olaniyonu, the government said Daniel’s claims are illogical as he had shouted same way during his eight years in office instead of facing the task of governance.

    Olaniyonu  said: “How can he say we are destroying the economy of the state when President Jonathan, who he claimed to be supporting, has been in this state severally to commission industries.

    “The president at one of his visits declared that Ogun is the most industrialised state in country and everyone in the state will soon find job to do. Many industries now throng the state among which is the Procter and Gamble – the biggest American investment in Nigeria outside oil and gas.

    “This is how he shouted for eight years when he was in power, except if he is seeing what the president and other investors are not seeing or people are seeing what he sees not, his argument is illogical.”

  • Daniel greets Osoba at 75

    Daniel greets Osoba at 75

    Former Ogun State Governor Gbenga Daniel has extolled the virtues of Aremo Olusegun Osoba, his predecessor, who is 75 today.

    He said Osoba he remains an elder statesman, astute grass-roots politician and a veteran journalist.

    Daniel noted that Osoba legacies of while serving as governor  can’t  be easily forgotten and felicitated with him as he clocks another year.

    In a statement by his Media aide, Mr Ayo Giwa, Daniel  said Osoba opened up many rural communities and extended electricity supply to the nooks and crannies of the State in line with the rural integration policy of legendary Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

    Daniel said: ”Chief Osoba, according to Otunba Daniel was a front-line and fearless journalist of the old stock whose footprints was instrumental to the shaping up of modern journalism in Nigeria.

    “New and younger generation of journalists in the country owe a lot to the quintessential former Governor as a patron and veteran of that noble profession.”

     

  • Amosun’s aide flays LP

    Amosun’s aide flays LP

    FORMER Governor Gbenga Daniel’s faction of Ogun State Labour Party (LP) has been condemned over its criticism of Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s interactive session with civil servants.

    A spokesperson of the factional LP in a statement, claimed that the meeting was designed to deceive the civil servants as well as a reaction to the Ekiti governorship election.

    But the Special Assistant to Amosun on Print Media, Olusola Balogun, yesterday, dismissed the factional LP.

    Balogun said the meeting, which was part of activities to mark the 2014 Civil Service Week, was not a reaction, but Amosun’s way of showing affection for the civil servants and addressing issues that borders on workers’ welfare.

    “If this factional spokesman was well informed, he would have been told that the Head of Service, Mrs. Modupe Adekunle, explained in her opening speech at the beginning of the event, tagged: ‘A day with the governor,’ that the event was postponed by seven days due to certain work schedules that involves both the governor and top civil servants in the state.

    “In fact, I still remember that Mrs. Adekunle told the packed hall at the June12 Cultural Centre, that she had to put a call to someone in Abeokuta to cancel the event when she realised that she and her team of top civil servants on the entourage of the governor could not make it back to Abeokuta before 4p.m. The governor also corroborated her position when he took to the podium.

    “One then wonder where the Labour Party guy got the idea that the event was a reaction to an unrelated event in far away Ekiti,” Balogun argued.

    The governor’s aide maintained that Amosun, from his first week in office, left no one in doubt about his sincerity and desire to correct the wrongs and abnormalities foisted on the state by some people now masquerading as modern-day advocates of workers’ welfare.

    “I am sure workers in the state civil service too would readily attest that Governor Amosun prioritised their welfare. He ensures nothing impedes the payment of their salary and allowances even when the Federal Government defaulted in the release of statutory allocation to states.

    “But my joy is that the highly articulated Ogun civil servants are not deceived by this unsolicited advocacy from Labour Party. They know who their friends are,” Balogun said.

    The aide also slammed the criticism of the governor’s promise to re-start the car and housing loan schemes.

    “I am not surprised the Labour Party man was at sea on where the funding for car and housing loans would come from. They deserve our sympathy though. They deserve our sympathy because of their hollow intellectual capacity, which cannot accommodate anything developmental,” he added.

     

  • Amosun’s aide flays LP

    Amosun’s aide flays LP

    FORMER Governor Gbenga Daniel’s faction of Ogun State Labour Party (LP) has been condemned over its criticism of last week’s interactive session Governor Ibikunle Amosun had with civil servants.

    A spokesperson of the factional LP had in a statement claimed that the meeting was designed to deceive the civil servants as well as a reaction to the Ekiti governorship election.

    But the Special Assistant to Amosun on Print Media, Olusola Balogun, in a statement yesterday, dismissed the position of the factional LP as a figment of its own warped imagination and a further display of hollowness the former governor’s men.

    Balogun said the meeting, which was part of activities slated to mark the 2014 Civil Service Week, was not a reaction, but Amosun’s way of showing affection for the civil servants and addressing issues that bothers on workers’ welfare.

    “If this factional spokesman was well informed, he would have been told that the Head of Service, Mrs. Modupe Adekunle, explained in her opening speech at the beginning of the event, tagged: ‘A day with the governor,’ that the event was postponed by seven days due to certain work schedules that involves both the governor and top civil servants in the state.

    “In fact, I still remember that Mrs. Adekunle told the packed hall at the June12 Cultural Centre, that she had to put a call to someone in Abeokuta to cancel the event when she realised that she and her team of top civil servants on the entourage of the governor could not make it back to Abeokuta before 4p.m. The governor also corroborated her position when he took to the podium.

    “One then wonder where the Labour Party guy got the idea that the event was a reaction to an unrelated event in far away Ekiti,” Balogun argued.

    The governor’s aide maintained that Amosun, from his first week in office, left no one in doubt about his sincerity and desire to correct the wrongs and abnormalities foisted on the state by some people now masquerading as modern-day advocates of workers’ welfare.

    “I am sure workers in the state civil service too would readily attest that Governor Amosun prioritised their welfare. He ensures nothing impedes the payment of their salary and allowances even when the Federal Government defaulted in the release of statutory allocation to states.

    “But my joy is that the highly articulated Ogun civil servants are not deceived by this unsolicited advocacy from Labour Party. They know who their friends are,” Balogun said.

    The aide also slammed the criticism of the governor’s promise to re-start the car and housing loan schemes.

    “I am not surprised the Labour Party man was at sea on where the funding for car and housing loans would come from. They deserve our sympathy though. They deserve our sympathy because of their hollow intellectual capacity, which cannot accommodate anything developmental,” he added.

     

  • Ogun road projects cost N166.7b

    Ogun road projects cost N166.7b

    Road contracts worth N166.7 billion were awarded to contractors in Ogun State in the last three years.

    The roads span 306.55km and cut across the three senatorial districts.

    Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure Olamilekan Adegbite stated this yesterday in Abeokuta, the state capital, during a ministerial press briefing marking the third anniversary of Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s administration.

    Adegbite said many jobs were created through the road projects, adding: “A lot of information is flying around on the social media about how much we have spent on roads. Some people alleged that the budget was bloated, instead of asking questions about things they do not know.

    “The amount spent on road construction is N166,715,880,490.79 billion. Some people may decide to divide this amount by 36 months, but it does not work like that. There are bridges on these roads and the cost of constructing a bridge is different from that of a road.

    “I urge people not to politicise the issue. Please go round and see what we are doing. They are standard roads that will stand the test of time, not shoddy projects.”

    On statements credited to former Governor Gbenga Daniel and Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko on the cost of the road projects, Adegbite said: “They are mere political statements. Mimiko should know better, except if he is not building roads in his state. As for the former governor, the wonders done by this administration are a shock to him. He is still sleeping and someone needs to wake him. I do not want to join issues with them.”

     

  • Court picks April 3 for Daniel’s trial

    Court picks April 3 for Daniel’s trial

    An Abeokuta High Court on Thursday fixed April 3 and April 4 for the continuation of the trial of a former governor of Ogun State, Chief Gbenga Daniel.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Daniel is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a 38-count charge bordering on fraudulent conversion of land and diversion of public funds.

    The former governor, however, filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal, Ibadan, challenging a ruling of the lower court which dismissed his plea to quash counts 1-13 of the charges.

    Justice Olanrewaju Mabekoje of the Abeokuta High Court consequently adjourned the case till February 6 to enable the appellate court rule on the appeal.

    At the resumed proceedings on Thursday, Daniel’s counsel, Mr. Tayo Oyetibo, told the court “there is no more hurdle in the way of the trial.”

    He said the court of appeal had ruled that his client should also stand trial for the counts 1-13 in the subsisting suit.

    EFCC counsel, Mr. Toyosi Kuteyi, who confirmed the development thereafter asked for a trial date.

    The case was subsequently adjourned to April 3 and April 4 for continuation of trial.

     

  • Daniel to lead LP in Ogun

    Daniel to lead LP in Ogun

    The National Leadership of the Labour Party (LP) yesterday debunked rumours that former Ogun State Governor Gbenga Daniel had been expelled from the party.

    LP National Chairman Chief Dan Nwanyawu and the National Secretary, Alhaji A. Salam, in a statement, said Daniel would lead the process of repositioning the party in Ogun State for victory in 2015.

    Describing Daniel’s purported expulsion as a ruse, they said the party’s national leadership was embarrassed by the news, adding that only the National Convention has the power to expel any member.

    The statement reads: “Such information should be ignored by our members in Ogun State, as Daniel is still in the LP. The party has not endorsed any governorship candidate for the 2015 election in Ogun State. LP leaders, unlike in some other parties, do not endorse or appoint candidates.

    “Aspirants for positions are subjected to the rules governing elections as prescribed by the 2010 Electoral Act, the party’s constitution and guidelines.

    “Candidates emerge only through primaries and not by appointment or endorsement. Above all, the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) is yet to release the timetable for the 2015 general elections. The issue of the zone that will produce the governorship candidate shall be resolved soon. Certain officers of the party have over-reached themselves, thereby embarrassing the party by their actions and in actions on these issues. Thus, the party has commenced disciplinary procedures on these officers to avoid a recurrence.”