Convener of The Alternative Movement, Segun Showunmi, has asked the Governor of Ogun State, Dapo Abiodun and Senator representing Ogun East senatorial district, Gbenga Daniel, to handle their disputes in the interest of the state.
He also urged President Bola Tinubu to call them to order and put an end to the sufferings caused on the masses as a result of their dispute.
Showunmi spoke on Monday, while featuring at the “Guest Forum”, a program organised by the Correspondents’ Chapel, of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ogun State Council, in Abeokuta.
Recall that the duo of Abiodun and Daniel had been at loggerheads for obvious political reasons, since after the 2023 general elections.
Their rift is reportedly connected with disputes about who occupies the Ogun East Senatorial District seat in the National Assembly in 2027.
Just recent, Gbenga Daniel had accused the governor of intolerance and operating a “three-man closed government where no one outside the tiny cabal can offer counsel without being ostracised, victimised, and marked for persecution.”
He also accused Abiodun of deliberately obstructing and sabotaging federal government intervention projects in the state.
Responding, Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Strategy, Kayode Akinmade, dismissed the allegation that the constituency projects being executed by Gbenga Daniel, were stopped out of spite.
Akinmade stated that Daniel’s projects in some areas were stopped because they were substandard and did not meet Federal Government specifications, adding that the government has a constitutional right to ensure that projects were done appropriately and in consonance with standards.
Showunmi, however, expressed dismay on why the Daniel and Abiodun, who were best of friends before could not manage their rift.
He advised Daniel to respect Abiodun as the governor of the State, as well as the leader of the party in the senatorial district and requested that Abiodun manage every circumstance with a feeling of responsibility to lower the political temperature of the state.
He said, “Luckily, I called them the three musketeers. Musketeer number one, Justus Olugbenga Daniel, he ran here, he led here as governor. The total authority, nobody overrunning him.
“Because of this defect, musketeer number two, my beloved brother, Ibikunle Amosun, he collected his musketeer sword, practically made it impossible for his predecessor, none of his policy made sense to him.
“If you see I have a bit of soft spot for Dapo , musketeer number three. And when Ibikunle was here, whatever he deemed fit was what he did. Why I have a bit of soft spot for Governor Dapo Abiodun is that musketeer number, at least, I see that some of their visions, some of their projects, he is doing it. If he had behaved like musketeer number one and number two, perhaps that which you are asking me to comment on, you won’t even comment on it.
“By the constitution we are running today, and by the style of the politics, the governors are the leaders of the party. Shall a governor in his second term, who is aware of the banana peel around second term in Ogun, shall he not be mindful?
“Ah, Bola Tinubu you are too weak. I could not have been their President, leader of their party and I wouldn’t have summoned both of them to explain to me why they are making the lives of Ogun State people harder than it should be. This is a land where people believe in culture and in tradition, in dancing, in music, in Owambe.
“Young politicians are not fighting among themselves, elderly ones, that will not let us rest. Press conference upon press conference, press conference upon press conference.
” Well, a pharaoh cometh that knoweth not Joseph. Who will do justice here? So I appeal to them to bring the temperature down, to respect constututed authority, and to manage themselves within the extant rules of their own party” he added.