Senator Ibikunle Amosun was the gubernatorial candidate of All Nigeria Peoples Party in the 2007 election. In this interview with General Editor, ADEMOLA ADEGBAMIGBE, he characterises Governor Gbenga Daniel, especially, his propensity to fight different wars at the same time. |
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Q: Your relationship with Governor Gbenga Daniel in the beginning was cordial and there was this report that you actually helped him. Can you speak on that?
A: Well, let me put it this way as a Muslim, even if you do anything, probably it has been destined that it has to be done by you. Whether you help somebody or you do not help him, if the Almighty Allah says he would get there, of course, irrespective of whatever anybody does, he would get there. Yes, I played my part that time. But just knowing me, I just felt that at that particular point in time, it just fell on me that I should do what I did and I never looked back. Of course, I did everything humanly possible: financially, materially, morally. And that is me. Anything I want to do I don’t look back.
Q: At what point did your relationship start to go sour?
A: I can tell you that it was actually even before he was sworn in, shortly after he became Governor-elect. I think precisely the first day that I knew of it was 6 May, 2003. You know he was sworn in on 29 May 2003. Somebody lived with me; I don’t want to mention names now. The fellow just came and said that he heard them saying that they wanted to deal with Amosun and his people now that they have won the election. That the only person that could challenge them was Amosun and that what I did in the run-up to that election, during the campaign, was definitely more than the Senate I was going for and that of course, I had my eyes on the governorship. And I learnt the first thing Daniel said after his declaration as Governor-elect was: ‘Thank God, Amosun will now be cut to size.’ So that should tell you it even predates his swearing in as Governor. But thank God we have overcome the storm and we are still what we are.
Q: During your campaign in Abeokuta, your convoy was attacked. Would you like to speak on that?
A: Well, like I said, these are legion. There was a particular day he called me and I said he wanted all my “political structure”. That was the way he put it; that I should immediately go and make sure I dismantle my political structure. And I asked him, what are my “structures”? He said the market women, the mechanics, villagers, taxi drivers. And I asked him: How could I go and do away with them? They were the people that voted you in and in any case, you are the governor, I am not. You have all the machinery to do that, so if you want to take them over, why not? But for me, it is not possible to do away with my people.
Arising from that, he did not want anybody to even maintain any kind of presence in Ogun State except him. And I told him that I was actually elected a senator before him because the National Assembly election came before the gubernatorial. So why would he not at least let me come back and say thank you to my people in my constituency? Of course, he did not like it. So, we started the campaign, I mean the going around, just to let our people know what we were doing in Abuja. Then on the fifth day, he couldn’t withstand the popularity we were getting. So he now asked the police and everybody to stop me. Of course, when they saw the crowd, they knew they could not attempt it. So he now actually gathered some thugs–I really do not want to use the word thug because if you look at it, they are still our people, though they are being misled. You still have to find it within yourself to put in some decorum into how one qualifies them. He called them together, gave them guns, cutlasses and money.
Ogun State had always been very peaceful. During Chief Segun Osoba’s days, you would see us fraternising with his commissioners. In Gbenga Daniel’s time, nobody must even pass through Ibikunle Amosun’s house, not to talk of greeting him. So on that particular day, he gathered some boys, armed them with guns to come and stop us. Again when they saw the crowd, they knew that they could not do it. They went back to him and he now said he would do it by himself. We were there peacefully. If you know Abeokuta very well… because the excuse that he actually gave was that because he is Governor, he is the Chief Security Officer and that he could go anywhere that he likes. Never mind that we got police permission to embark on that very particular tour that we called “thank you tour”. As we were going, they just told me that they heard siren blaring towards us. There were more than 20,000 people and he wanted to drive through all of us. They couldn’t even get near to where I was. Then they started shooting sporadically. They teargassed me and fired sporadically into the air to disperse us. But I think when he realised that his convoy could not pass through that resolute crowd, they ran back. He practically ran away from that spot. But we have put that behind us because I remember even President Obasanjo spoke to me through the commissioner of police’s phone. The CP, who came, gave me the phone and told me that the IG wanted to speak with me. I spoke with the IG, telling him that we were on a peaceful thank you tour and that if they wanted to arrest us they should do so. Then he called again, telling me that the IG was on the line, only to discover it was President Obasanjo. And he (Obasanjo) now ordered that we should stop that rally. So as a sign of respect for him, we had to abide by the order.
Q: Will you also want to comment on the Ibogun drama?
A: Let me just put it this way that at the appropriate time, I will talk. Let me just say that I am a regular face at that Ibogun Day. But for obvious reasons, I didn’t go in 2007, though I went in 2008. Of course, on getting there, they never expected me, so to say. Ordinarily, you know what has happened between me and former President Obasanjo, even though we are from the same place and he is more or less like a big uncle and father to me. So even after all this politics, both of us are still there, his children are there, my children will be there. We cannot change the course of that history. So whatever Baba Obasanjo has done to me, I leave everything to God. So, getting to Ibogun, I didn’t expect the kind of reception that was given to me. I went with about 10 of my people and heard people saying I came with a horde of my supporters. So when we got there, it was as if I deliberately gathered everybody there. They were delighted, saying, Our son is back! Our governor! and so on. Of course I went to Baba, just to pay him the normal homage. And I just bowed gently to greet him and he pushed me away, saying: You can’t greet me that way. You have to prostrate for me if you want to greet me. You could see him very happy, very elated to see me. I obeyed him. I prostrated. And that was exactly what happened.
Q: Why do you think he is fighting everybody?
A: In the beginning, they said Amosun is not good. Even all these people he is fighting now, all of them were supporting him. I remember between 2003 and 2005, at every available opportunity, I used to tell Baba that Daniel is an opportunist and would avoid his helpers, including Baba himself, like the plague as soon as he got what he wanted. Daniel is a master of deceit. He used the powers that be when it suited him to work against me. Starting from the Civil Defence, the police, the army and of course INEC. Everybody helped Daniel and worked against me and my party before and during the 2007 general elections.
There is a particular incident that I will want history and posterity to record. On 10th March, 2007, that was the day they arranged that I must be killed. Indeed they thought I was actually killed. That was when they brought soldiers everywhere. You see, in my memoirs I will reveal how God saved me that day. Because they knew that if they went for election against Amosun they would lose, so they arranged to kill me. All of them united to kill me. I was lucky, the good Lord intervened and saved my life. Sadly, some of our people were killed.
So when you see things like that, how can I say I now want to be in that party and contest? So I left, and my people followed me to ANPP. Daniel is an ingrate; he has fought all the people that have supported him, both rightly and wrongly. Today, I am happy for one thing, Daniel is taking on all the people that have assisted him in fighting, persecuting and denying us of our hard-won 2007 governorship and other elections. He is fighting former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Senator Jubril Martins-Kuye, Chief Alani Bankole, Alhaji Sharafa Ishola, Speaker Dimeji Bankole, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, Senator Lekan Mustapha. The list is endless. Who has he not fought? Daniel thinks he is God. Daniel made people that are old enough to be his father cringe before him. They call him emperor! Now he says he is “Lion Of Ogun State”. Even our traditional rulers are not spared the insults and humiliation. He has destroyed all our elders. We did not have cultism in Ogun State schools until the advent of our modern day Emperor, or, sorry, Lion of Ogun State. I understand that cultism is now prevalent not only in tertiary institutions but also in secondary schools in the state. How sad. But I just believe that we should not lose focus because I know that with God, it is just a matter of days for Daniel. There was even a time he was reported to have said that what Papa Obafemi Awolowo could not achieve in his lifetime he has achieved in his first year in office. He is a master of deceit. Go and talk to the students, go and talk to the market women, go and talk to the civil servants, why is he so hated? Ask him. Why? Even all the Kabiyesi don’t like him. He is not liked at all. Why would you want people to fear you? Is he God? Even in his own faction of PDP in Ogun State, hardly would he get 10 per cent that genuinely like him. They don’t like him. During Osoba era, you could see the development. Daniel would just be shouting that he has completed almost all the roads in the state, yet the few roads that he has done were shoddily done. Take for example the Sagamu-Abeokuta road that he has made so much noise about, it has permanently been under repair. Siphoning about N500 million yearly all in the name of repairing a newly constructed road. He is more on television, newspapers and billboards publicising esoteric and empty projects that don’t have positive bearing on our people.
Q: You once alleged that Gbenga Daniel is not from Ogun State. Where is he from?
A: He is from Delta/Edo. They would take him to the place at the appropriate time. He has even gone there to take chieftaincy title! So he will go back there. The way Daniel is going, he would find it difficult to walk the streets of Ogun after his disastrous and inevitably humiliating end. I mean, never in the history of Ogun State will people like him come to rule over us again. You will see what people of Ogun State would do to him. People had been governor before him; people had been president before him. To Daniel, Olusegun Osoba must be destroyed, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, his benefactor, must equally be curtailed. Look at Obama’s victory in USA for example. He got there against all odds as an African American. The same Daniel that was prostrating around even for Iyabo because he wanted second term badly is now saying Obasanjo is nothing to him. Daniel that cannot win any election in Ogun state is now saying, who is Obasanjo? Who made him governor? Was it not Obasanjo?
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bodeduja
12 January 2009 18:04I like Daniel what ever anybody might have said about him would not stop me from liking him but the fact remains that he doesn’t want any semblance of porpularity for anybody outside himself and if care is not taken that may lead to his own ruin not only in Ogun State but in Nigeria he has to be very careful and learn how to tolerate people most especially the opposition.
Bode
bodeduja@yahoo.com
Yinka
13 January 2009 00:53Otunba Gbenga Daniel is a CURSED AND AVOWED INGRATE of the highest order. May we never have someone like him in Ogun State again. A governor that fights everybody can never achieve. He is also not known to be respecting the traditional institution. A governor that requested and accepted the apology of the Revered Paramount Ruler of Egba land can never suceed in life. Woe to Otunba Justus Olugbenga Daniel, as only a cursed person will only behave in the manner he is behaving.
Femi Atanda
13 January 2009 07:54The above account is still very fresh in my memories. It was a re-echo of tunes long forgotten. I wonder how a Governor would deliberately bring his entourage headlong against such a huge crowd. Thereafter, under the pretext of solidarity match in favour of the authoritarian Governor, an army of thugs, including the never-do-well OPC of the Faseun faction (and the old fool himself) invaded Abeokuta as though to fight another Adubi war. They paraded all sorts of razor sharp cutlasses, guns clubs and such other tools of destruction, chatting war songs as they matched through the peaceful town of Abeokuta. As they did, they attacked motorists, traders and perceived opponents of Gbenga Daniel’s PDP. It was a hell. I was driving along Ijaye that day. I was shivering with the kind of guns and cutlasses I saw. Worst still, the then number one law maker of the State, my own State threw protocols into the winds as she gave order, kill them … maim them … ton ba gbemu … mo fe m’eje. I can never forget this day, neither can I forgive Gbenga Daniel for having brought violence to the ancient city of Egbaland.
Femi
14 January 2009 15:09Life could be very funny indeed! sometimes we forget issuue very quickly and such has not been helping our sense of history and often distort our reasoning.
In my own mind, AMOSUN should not be complaining about his fellow party robber DANIEL! it was a simple law of retribution.
This are the gangs of political robbers that re-configure the politics of South -West via Do or Die style backed by Obasanjo to rigged out our respected political Leaders in South-West in 2003, it’s just 5yrs! how come have we forgotten that it’s going to be a matter of time before these people will be repaid back with their DIVIDENDS!
Common! i just dont like mediocrity Amosun! Stop Please stop! it is the pay back period for all of you that forcefully lead us to the MAINSTREAM.
Daniel is dealing with you because he knew how he got the position he found himself.
Amosun will be in a better position to draw a comparative analysis between OSOBA and DANIEL so also the rest of us who are actually enjoying the drama. Amosun, Iyabo,Obasanjo, Oba Gbadebo, Kuye,Anisulowo and Co once told us that the best thing that could happen to the good people of Ogun state was Daniel!! Can they know better now??
Please let us not forget the past easily so that we can analyse wisely……………………………A lesson for all!!!!!!!!!!!!
phemson2002@yahoo.com
ladi Akanni
15 January 2009 14:19we all know daniel for his recklessness and crave for power. he is destined to be ruined. doom him.
Abiodun Oyewole
16 January 2009 00:30Hun,
I will like to express my self in yoruba that “Daniel orun e re,omo ale ogun to soko si ile”.I pray that we should never experience governance like this again in ogun state.
BRIGHT
16 January 2009 03:23THE INTERVIEW IS CONFUSING.HOW COME AN ALIEN IS RULING OGUN STATE FOR EIGHT YEARS?HA,OGUN STATE LIKE ANY OTHER YORUBA RICH STATE IN HISTORY THAT MEANS ALL THE ELDERS OF OGUN STATE SHOULD GO AND BURY THEIR HEAD IN SHAME.THIS IS PAY BACK TIME TO DANIEL BECAUSE I QUIET AGREES WITH SENATOR AMOSUN THAT THE MAN IN CHARGE OF OKE IMOSAN HAS BETRAY VIRTUALLY ALL THE PEOPLE THAT HAS HELP HIM IN LIFE TO ATTAIN THE HEIGHT HE HAS REACH NOW.ONE MAN I WILL NEVER FORGET AMONG HIS HELPERS WHEN HE WAS NOTHING IS ASIWAJU BOLA HAMED TINUBU A REPUTABLE YORUBA LEADER.DANIEL WITH THE HELP OF FEDERAL MIGHT WHEN BABA IYABO WAS STILL ABUJA LANDLORD CONSPIRED AGAINST GOD SENT MESSIAH OF LAGOS STATE THEN BUT ALL THEIR PLOY FAILED BECAUSE GOD IS ALWAYS BEHIND ASIWAJU BOLA TINUBU.DANIEL SHOULD BE BRACING FOR TOUGH TIME AHEAD IN OGUN STATE.I FORSEES A DISASTROUS END IF HE FAILS TO QUICKLY RETRACES HIS STEP BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE.
Gani Kayode-Balogun Jr
17 January 2009 12:02what is our business when vote -robbers decided to stab each other in the back? I am sure that the story behind the PDP’s conquest of the south west is yet to be fully told. One day, these pretenders would be exposed, like their patron saint Ikechuckwu Obasanjo
akannbi
19 January 2009 15:45The pros and cons about Governor Gbenga Daniel is a beauty of democracy. It is a mirror for him to assess the impression people have of him and his government. The introduction of violence into Ogun State politics by Gbenga Daniel is one thing i can not reconcile and i want to beleive that is the hallmark of PDP politics.
Whether the governor is performing or not , media hype or not, your acheivement will be there for all to see.People will see it and commend you.(if you do it well). I pray that whe he leaves office, nobody will throw him rotten eggs, tomotoes or shoes. Borrow a leaf from your counter party in Lagos State and learn how to govern. He needs to watch the impression of the people he is governing so that when you leave office you will be able to walk free among the people. I wish you best of luck for the remaining period of your tenor.
wale
23 January 2009 13:32I can read between the lines.PM news,continue to make your money.It is hightime I review my visit to this page.Your publications are too onesided and not objective at allllll-even look at the questions that were asked. I would be surprise if you allow this my comment to come on your page,na you sabi
olu martins
25 January 2009 17:30what ever people says about so call gbenga daniel can suprised me. what did expect when you sideline a legitimate child and installed an illegitimate child to head or lead a legitimate community. yoruba proverb says: ile ti ontoro, omo ale ibe ni ko ti dagba. by looking at the whole issue or story, it’s very clear to the whole world that GBENGA DANIEL IS A BASTARD CHILD FROM REMO KINGDOM, whom the elders of PDP PARTY from remo land lead by chief bayode oluwole imposed on peace loving people of ogun state. gbenga daniel has turn the state to most dangerous state in nigeria, worst affected is REMO NORTH LOCAL GOVT. under the chairmanship of JOHN OBAFEMI a.k.a omo kilodi, a disable wicked and heatless idiot who is related to gbenga daniel in character and political belief of killing people. belief it or not history will judge and you will all reap what you plant.
onanuga ola
28 January 2009 15:57Fu rawon loma furawo logun jeeeeee.
George olajide
1 February 2009 11:29All hail the Emperor-The conqueror of IJEGBAS!!!! I do hope one day Daniel will look back and come back to his senses Because right now his senses is clouded by the Trainsient power in his dispossal.
soji danielson
4 February 2009 21:40I find it very funny that the good people of ogun state are crying for a spilled milk at the tenth hour. Daniel claim his father is from Shagamu where surreptuosly a compound for his grand parents emerged from the bush overnight! Before then he had his personal house at Ijebuode to which a large part of the stadium was annexed. in abeokuta an agelong. property close to the tennis court was also taken over in a dubious land deal that attracted the likes of a senior partner of an accountingfirm calling on efcc to probe daniel.who was the respected lawyer that published the response in the newspapers? shibajo of course despite his years in the university and accolades in the legal profession.
what is daniels connection with omu where also his presence is worshipped.he has properties there as well. i do not quarrel with an isokoman being a governor of another state that he has lived in for so long my worry is that he has destroyed the fabric of the state unwittingly as anyone seeking any office in the state now must pay homage as well be under oath or bond to abide to daniels whims and caprices.this is what nelson mandela called failure of leadership and it applies as in this case to ogun state.
it is even obvious that local government administation is run from daniels bedroom by overloyal acolytes hence none of them has come out openly even after their tenure to spill the beans.
daniels supritends the purse and manipulates the honourables at local government level to siphon allocations.
we are just fed up with this tyrant and murderer.idi amin should be his alias not emperor.even a respected church in the land endorsed him? one wonders how the reverred pastor will feel now after agreeing to pray for daniel to be governor of the state—sheer hypocite televised to insult mankind.
all and sundry should collectively pray or wish that thissecond term ends swiftly so that the state can pick up from its arches.
soji
what has been the reaction of the populace to the damaging revelations by candidates of other parties?we are told he made his money from lifts one wonders if daniels company is the only one in lift business and what is the ratio of buildings with lifts to the oveall total of buildings in the country.
adebayo frank
14 May 2009 20:49How true is this story of yours,can we just beleive its politician way of distroying one another?Well God sees all of you.