By Lukman Olabiyi
A former governor of Ogun State, who is now the senator representing Ogun East Senatorial district, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, has said that he was not ready to dignify his critics with any response over his alleged rift with the current governor of the state, Prince Dapo Abiodun.
Daniel said all the attacks and allegations against him don’t bother him, noting rather that the welfare of his constituents remains his topmost priority. Daniel revealed this during a virtual interactive session he had with members of the League of Yoruba Media Practitioners (LYMP), monitored from Lagos by Saturday Sun.
The Senator had recently in a media chat revealed the reason for the frosty relationship between him and Governor Abiodun.
Shedding light on what he regarded as the genesis of the frosty relationship between him and some chieftains of All Progressive Congress (APC) in Ogun State, Daniel said his choice of support for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for President during the party primary was the main cause of the friction.
He held that towards the APC presidential primary election, the party was polarised between those working for the emergence of Tinubu and former Vice President, Yemi Osibanjo as the APC flag-bearer. Daniel said the current victimisation and gang-up against him was as a result of the choice he made then. However, during the week, the state chapter of the party faulted the claims, insisting that Daniel never supported the candidacy of President Tinubu. In a statement issued by Olusola Ogunsanya, Assistant Publicity Secretary of Ogun APC, the party insisted that the senator’s interview was filled with lies and falsehood. But at the virtual interactive session with the LYMP, Daniel said he would not respond to the allegations against him, saying he had also accepted all the tantrums thrown at him in good faith.
He said: “I am an elder. I have to absorb so much, and I am already accommodating the allegations against me. Whatever they said, let us agree it is so, but what is more important is how we can lift our people out of poverty, how they can be free from hunger and pain. I am praying that, that which I have been sent to the Senate to do, we shall do very well, and the good Lord will strengthen me to do more than the people’s expectations.”