Gbenga Daniel Reveals Why Abiodun Almost Lost Ogun Guber Election To Adebutu

Senator Gbenga Daniel has revealed why Governor Dapo Abiodun almost lost the March 18 gubernatorial election to Ladi Adebutu of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Abiodun of the All Progressives Congress (APC) got 276, 298 votes while Adebutu secured 262,383 votes.

Adebutu is challenging Abiodun’s less that 14,000 votes to win a second term in office in court.

Senator Daniel also a member of the APC has unveiled the behind the scenes About Abiodun’s near-loss

According to Daniel who won is Senatorial election by 115,147 votes to his nearest challengers 58,708 votes “A lot of people did not really understand that we had difficulty starting the campaign of my governor. First, the 2019 election was not an overwhelming victory for the governor. He won with only 19,000 votes. When I compared that with when I contested the governorship election 20 years ago, my margin of victory was over 200,000. With a win of 19,000, it was not an overwhelming victory. It simply means there was a hot contest somewhere.

“The last election was a bit different. Virtually all the contending parties agreed to support Asiwaju in the presidential election. In my own senatorial election, virtually all the contending parties agreed to work for me. When we had the first elections, everybody went the same way. But the governorship election was different.

“If my governor will go beyond what some people whispered to him, he should be able to see what went wrong. His election was keenly contested between him and his kinsman in Iperu. Both of them are in the same ward, town and federal constituency. There was indeed a contest.”

“Some people must find excuses for what happened. The party was not doing well. His victory in other locations was marginal. We all know why the party was not doing well.”

The former two-term governor of Ogun state made the revelation in a chat with Thisday Newspaper over the weekend.

Providing better insight, the Senator representing Ogun East stated, “First, the rating of former President Muhammadu Buhari has gone low because he failed to tackle insecurity as people expected. People also expected that he would have brought inflation down. But that did not happen. People are unhappy with the collapse of Naira.

“All people expected under former President Buhari did not happen. Aside, Buhari was no longer a factor during that election. The people of Ogun State were also complaining. I am in position to know because I have my network across the state. I know a lot of people were not particularly excited about his election. Civil servants have the issue of unpaid allowances. Teachers, too, have their own issues with him. Pensioners have issues with the governor.

“To make the matter worse, my governor had to contest with his brother. As a result, Remo Nation was divided into two. That was what happened in the Ogun East. I thought that the governor should have taken those issues more seriously.

“Building on the euphoria of the first election, we had an overwhelming victory. But people’s perception about the presidential election was different. People were warning us as we were going from place to place. People kept telling us that they would support Asiwaju. But they said we should leave them to take their decision during the governorship elections.

“The governor cannot tell me that he was not aware of the sentiment in the street, and most unfortunately, he relied more on sycophants and the fabricated stories they fed him with.”