Untold Story As Daniel Becomes Favorites Of Ogun Leading Guber Candidates

Senator-Elect, Gbenga Daniel is now labeled a significant influence in who becomes the next Governor of Ogun State.

The determining election holds on Saturday, March 11, 2023.

Daniel, a former two-term governor, is the only owner of a virile state-wide political structure not sponsoring a gubernatorial candidate.

And the stakes at play have become so interwoven that the three leading gubernatorial candidates are keen to corner all the supports they can get across political parties.

They are Dapo Abiodun (All Progressives Congress – APC), Ladi Adebutu (People’s Democratic Party – PDP), and Biyi Otegbeye, the Action Congress (ADC) flagbearer hugely backed by former Governor Ibikunle Amosun of the APC.

Insiders claim Daniel’s history with Governor Dapo Abiodun, the gubernatorial candidate of his party – All progressives Congress (APC) – opened the door for the two other gubernatorial candidates and their sponsors to pressure Daniel for support.

Interestingly, the other two candidates directly and indirectly also have unflattering pasts with Daniel.

Abiodun, until it was inevitable, was against Daniel becoming the APC Senatorial candidate for Ogun East.

The opposition which has roots in “unresolved issues” surrounding the support that brought Abiodun to power in 2019 snowballed into a supremacy tussle. It didn’t help that there were talks that Abiodun is eyeing the Ogun East senatorial post after his exit as governor and Daniel would be hard to dislodge at that time as part of the reasons for his opposition.

Things got to a head when the Governor engineered a boycott of the former Governor’s campaign activities by his aides and party executives after the latter had secured the Ogun East senatorial ticket against all odds.

A compromise was, however, broker for the higher good days to the February 25, 2023 election that earned Daniel the recognition of Senator-Elect.

Abiodun’s aides and party chieftains aggressively campaigned for Daniel in the last leg of the campaign activities.

SocietyNow.Ng, however, confirmed that while the cold war between Abiodun and Daniel was on, Senator Ibikunle Amosun leveraged the development to open talks of an alliance with the former Governor.

Amosun succeeded Daniel as the Governor of Ogun state but persecuted him beyond measure, from reversing and abandoning policies and projects initiated by the latter’s administration to ensuring a rigorous investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that involved detention. The mega Conference hotel built and completed by the former governor in the state capital, Abeokuta was sealed while Amosun was governor.

Daniel reportedly set aside these experiences to enter into talks with Amosun

“The alliance was to help Amosun produce the next Governor based on certain understandings, including backing Daniel’s senatorial bid. At that time there was no compromise with Abiodun and Otegbeye was yet to be picked” SocietyNow.Ng learned.

The state of the “alliance talks” after the “reconciliation” between Abiodun and Daniel is not clear.

Although Otegbeye and his team of ADC chieftains paid a publicized courtesy visit to Daniel – after he won the Ogun East senatorial election.

Adebutu, the gubernatorial candidate of the PDP also visited Daniel after he became Senator-Elect and shared pictures of the development here and there for political mileage.

SocietyNow.Ng gathered that Adebutu is leaning on the rapport between his father, the billionaire lottery magnate Sir Kessington Adebutu, and Daniel to seal a favorable political deal with the former governor.

Adebutu, like Otegbeye’s sponsor Amosun, has different episodes of a colorful past with Daniel.

The most political career-defining was when Daniel campaigned to be the National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

After a very engaging and exhausting country-wide campaign, Daniel was forced to step down at the convention ground when he got confirmation that he faces imminent defeat with delegates from Ogun state allegedly sponsored by Adebutu actively working against him.

Adebutu refused Daniel the recognition as party leader in PDP before he joined APC where he is now a Senator-Elect.

“But despite these pasts, all the candidates directly and through sponsors are lobbying Daniel for support ahead Saturday’s election and it goes with saying whoever he backs will have a huge advantage” SocietyNow.Ng learned.