I didn't steal a kobo from Ogun, says Daniel

Former Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, has said that he came out of office clean, and all allegations made against were meant to besmirch his character..

Daniel at a press briefing on Tuesday at his Kresta Laurel Corporate Head Office, Maryland, Lagos, addressed some the issues that defined his his eight years reign.

Daniel traced the crisis that rocked his government to the removal of Hon. Tunde Oladunjoye from office as the Chairman of Ijebu East Local Government Area.

He said, “In the course of my tenure as governor of Ogun State, a friend of our administration introduced Oladunjoye to me as one of the young up and coming politicians being suppressed in his home constituency by older political leaders.

“Given my position to encourage and empower young and energetic Nigerians in whatever productive engagements they pursue, I singled him out for favour, positioned him in the leadership structure of his Ijebu East Local Government Area and in due course facilitated his emergence as the Chairman of the local government.

“The fellow, who later turned out to be an agent provocateur, was removed from office after the Ijebu-Ife mayem of December 2009, during which a Police Commissioner, Mr. Oladokun Omolodun, was murdered.

“Immediately after his removal from office, based on the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry constituted to probe the Ijebu-Ife disorder, he briefly worked for Prince Buruji Kashamu.

“Before long, Prince Kashamu discovered the reprehensible character and he was sacked and found his way to Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, whom he worked for before his pre-occupation of working for Governor Ibikunle Amosun.”

According to the former governor, before Oladunjoye became engaged with with Kashamu, he wrote a petition against him in retaliation for his removal.

He said, “If you remember what was going on in Ogun State at that time, the arrows were flying from all angels.

“The likes of Obasanjo, Dimeji Bankole, Kashamu Buruji, The Punch newspaper, The News, The Nation were all throwing their arrows against me.

“So that is the summary of what went wrong.
“The purported petition stated 16 count charge that I stole $3 million.

“Initially, they said it was N9 billion of local government funds.

“It was so surprising to me because I had been detained for 10 days and while I was in detention, I boycotted all newspapers because I knew they would annoy me with their reports because it's painful that I never stole a dime from Ogun State funds.

“So by the time I came out of detention, I read that I had stolen N57 billion and it was so disheartening reading those reports.

“At a time while in detention, I decided to go on hunger strike but they just kept me in there without charging me to court because as at the time of my arrest, they didn't find anything against me.

“It was after the arrest they started bringing this and that against me.

“However, due to my threat of going on hunger strike, they later charged me to court, which was celebrated in the media.”

Commenting further on Oladunjoye, Daniel said that he had former local government chairman had shown himself to be a very bad example of an elected public official.

“His conducts were not only appalling but morally reprehensible,” he said.

He stated further, “Right from December 2009, when the crisis erupted, resulting in such magnitude of loss of lives and property, he has not demonstrated an atom of human feeling for the constituents he was elected to serve.

“To say the least, Oladunjoye is not a suitable person to hold any public office.

“We accordingly recommended that he be suspended from office forthwith.

“In addition, we recommended the immediate arrest and investigation of Mr. Tunde Oladunjoye by the police.

“Since the recommended removal, there was no evil under the sun that Oladunjoye had not planned and attempted to execute against my person and members of my family.

“Unobtrusively and without prompting, we expected the police to do their work.

“Now, the question is: who are Oladunjoye's godfathers that have prevented the police from doing their work, even after he was found culpable in the dastardly murder of a Police Commissioner?

“Is there any nexus between him and those behind my current travails with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission?”

On Dipo Dina's death, the ex governor denied ever knowing anything about his death because he has been a friend of his family.

He added that d Dipo Dina's father is his neighbour in his Maryland home, adding that he was in deed during the construction of his Maryland home.

On his next political move, Daniel said he would prefer to work for the actualization of President Goodluck Jonathan's 2015 reelection ambition because he had done well in all other areas despite the current security challenges in the country.