Gbenga Daniel Joins Campaign As Drama Deepens Ahead Remo By-Election

The political theatre in Remo Federal Constituency has taken another twist. Senator Gbenga Daniel, once conspicuously absent from the All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign train, has now climbed aboard — barely days before Saturday’s high-stakes by-election.

The poll, which covers Ikenne, Sagamu, and Remo North, has been anything but routine. In the early stages of the build-up, Daniel — a two-term former governor and undisputed political heavyweight in the constituency — was sidelined from the APC’s mobilisation machinery.

The move, insiders say, was rooted in a long-simmering supremacy feud with Governor Dapo Abiodun, who controls the Ogun State chapter of the party.

Key allies of the senator were also frozen out.

The party’s candidate, Adesola Elegbeji, is firmly in the governor’s camp, and the campaign council has been stacked with Abiodun loyalists.

Daniel, in apparent protest, kept his distance, fuelling weeks of speculation over whether he would stay on the sidelines altogether.

Then, last Friday, the conflict took a personal turn.

The Ogun State government pasted contravention, quit, and demolition notices on Daniel’s properties — including his Sagamu residence.

The Abiodun administration insisted the action was part of a routine development audit in Sagamu and Ijebu-Ode Government Reserved Areas (GRAs) under its urban renewal scheme.

But Daniel, through his media aide, Steve Oliyide, dismissed the explanation, describing it as political persecution.

Amid the uproar, the senator announced he would mobilise for the APC after all — a move many see as a temporary political ceasefire rather than a full reconciliation.

True to his word, Daniel has since joined the campaign, working with some of the very figures who once sought to keep him out.

Behind the scenes, however, the legal battle rages. Daniel has secured a court order halting any further government action on his properties.

In a parallel concession, the Ogun State government extended by two weeks the deadline for document submission in the verification exercise that ensnared the senator.

The APC faces a formidable challenger in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), bankrolled by Ladi Adebutu, another Remo political powerhouse. The PDP candidate, Oluwole Bolarinwa — a familiar face in the race — is leaning heavily on his record as a serial contender to sway voters.

With powerful egos, entrenched rivalries, and unresolved grudges all in the mix, Saturday’s by-election is shaping up as more than a contest for one seat.