The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun State has said claims by former Governor Gbenga Daniel that he supported President Bola Tinubu in the party’s primaries last year are untrue.
The party said Mr Daniel was not a delegate to the APC national convention where the primaries was conducted or had any delegate from his camp there.
The party said this in a statement a spokesperson, Olusola Blessed, issued in response to comments made by Mr Daniel on Sunday.
Speaking in an interview with ThisDay , Mr Daniel, who is the new senator for the Ogun East district on the platform of the APC, said he fell out with Governor Dapo Abiodun over their differences on the presidential primaries.
Mr Abiodun and the APC leadership in Ogun had endorsed former vice president Yemi Osinbajo, who is from the state, in the primaries.
It will be recalled that the party refused to participate in Mr Daniel’s campaign for the senatorial election.
When Mr Daniel flagged off the campaign in October, the party issued a directive that no party official should attend the event.
Reacting to Mr Daniel’s claim of Sunday, Mr Blessed described the former two-term governor as dishonest.
“In the first place, the lawmaker, by his antecedents in private business and in power, painted a picture of dishonesty, making many wonders how he managed to get near the power corridor, to the extent of becoming the governor of a state like Ogun.”
The party said, contrary to claims in the interview, Governor Abiodun rescued Mr Daniel from “political ignominy despite strong resistance from party members who were well apprised of what he represented
“His liberation from the political oblivion into which he threw himself out of greed became necessary after his party, the PDP, lost the presidential election in 2019. Many were taken aback by the speed with which Gbenga Daniel dumped his principal, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the PDP despite his position as the Director General of the Atiku Abubakar Campaign organisation.”
According to the party, Mr Daniel was an outsider during the APC presidential primary who was never a delegate or had a single delegate from Ogun State.
“Daniel, an outlier of an outsider in the APC during the presidential primaries of June 2022 who was neither a delegate nor had a single delegate from Ogun State, claimed that he supported Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu against Governor Dapo Abiodun’s wish. What a shameless merchant of falsehood!
“To put it succinctly, Governor Abiodun, being a genuine leader and a progressive, never worked against his party, APC, unlike Senator Gbenga Daniel. And to give credence to his unflinching commitment and loyalty to the party, as soon as Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu emerged as the presidential candidate of the APC, he immediately deployed all his political mercenaries and structures to support him, stoutly resisting all the gang-up within the fold spearheaded by Gbenga Daniel and his co-travellers. During the February 25 election, he won the State for Asiwaju Tinubu by a wide margin.
“That was quite unlike Gbenga Daniel who, for filthy lucre, criminally connived with the PDP after allegedly collecting N2 billion from Chief Kessington Adebutu and worked against the APC and its candidates in the presidential and gubernatorial elections.
“Happily, President Tinubu knows more than any other person the dangerous antics of Gbenga Daniel and what he represents in Nigeria’s political circles, and was alleged to have taunted him in the presence of some Senators, when he advised him to work on his reputation as a serial betrayal, but a leopard will never change its spots.
“We, therefore, implore the former governor to turn a new leaf from his now legendary dubious political antics, an act of ingratitude and political prostitution that have dishonourably marked his political career over the years with matchless notoriety and infamy. These are indeed unbecoming of a man of his age”, the statement read in part.“
