*OGD MEDIA OFFICE PRESS STATEMENT
29 April 2026
The OGD Media Office has been inundated with requests to respond to claims reportedly made by the outgoing Governor, Dapo Abiodun, at a private meeting in Iperu.
It is instructive that Governor Dapo Abiodun chose a closed gathering in his home to float claims he has, by his own admission, never dared to make publicly. Statements built on fiction are best circulated in rooms where they cannot be immediately interrogated.
For the record, however, two major claims were made: first, that Mr. Abiodun, as he then was in 2003, assisted and collapsed his structure in support of Otunba Gbenga Daniel’s emergence as Governor of Ogun State; and second, that Governor Dapo Abiodun was instrumental to the emergence of Otunba Gbenga Daniel as Senator representing Ogun East Senatorial District in 2023, twenty years later.
*First, the 2003 story.*
It is true that Mr. Dapo Abiodun contested in the PDP governorship primaries between 2001 and 2003, in which Otunba Daniel emerged as the party’s candidate. It is also on record that among the eight aspirants at the time, Mr. Abiodun’s campaign was the most “vicious” against Otunba Gbenga Daniel.
After the contest held on December 23, 2002, widely adjudged free and fair, OGD was returned as the party’s candidate with a decisive margin of delegates votes. He immediately engaged all his co-aspirants, including Prince Emma Shoda, Omoba Doyin Okupe, Prince Yemi Adefulu, and later Dapo Abiodun, in that order, with a “No Victor, No Vanquished” mindset.
It must also be reiterated that Mr. Dapo Abiodun was the last to join this handshake of collaboration, reportedly because he was preoccupied with forceful recovery efforts from supporters and delegates he suspected did not vote for him. Those who failed to return items and funds in their custody were, by several accounts, duly “punished” in what has come to be seen as his trademark style.
It is equally on record that Otunba Daniel ran an inclusive government and appointed Mr. Dapo Abiodun as the pioneer Chairman of the newly formed Gateway Oil & Gas Committee, which midwifed the establishment of the state’s oil and gas limited liability company. Prince Wemmy Osude served as Managing Director.
It should also not be forgotten that Mr. Dapo Abiodun lost woefully to Senator Buruji Kashamu of the PDP in the 2015 Ogun East Senatorial District election. So much for the strength of that “structure.”
In 2019, however, the support of Otunba Gbenga Daniel was widely acknowledged. The governorship election was, by all indications, Mr. Abiodun’s to lose due to bitter internal wrangling within the All Progressives Congress at the time. The party structure was firmly in the control of then- Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, whose preferred candidate was widely seen as being on course for victory.
At that critical moment, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, then a PDP chieftain, was approached to support Mr. Abiodun. He heeded the call, placing the future and development of Ogun State above partisan considerations, especially as the PDP itself was entangled in a debilitating legal crisis over its governorship candidacy. OGD not only mobilised his political structure in support of Mr. Abiodun, he also publicly raised his hand in a symbolic show of acceptance before thousands of supporters and members of the media.
*On the 2023 Senatorial Election*
The events leading to the 2023 senatorial contest are well documented. It must be clearly stated that Senator Otunba Gbenga Daniel won the Ogun East Senatorial election on the strength of his name, his legacy, and the overwhelming support and goodwill of his people. He remains one of the most consequential political figures Ogun State has ever produced.
The suggestion that his emergence as senator was a product of Governor Abiodun’s backstage choreography is not only false, it is an insult to every voter in Ogun East Senatorial District who participated in that election.
Governor Abiodun claims he convinced frontrunners to step down. The record tells a different story. By the time any such “intervention” allegedly occurred, the primaries were already nearing conclusion. There were no frontrunners left to persuade, only a result to accept. A man who arrives after the contest to claim credit for its outcome is not a kingmaker; he is a latecomer attempting to rewrite history.
It is instructive to note that after emerging as the APC candidate, Otunba Daniel toured all 103 wards of Ogun East Senatorial District and held 13 local government rallies across the nine LGAs. Governor Dapo Abiodun, despite his claims of support, did not attend any of these campaign programmes. We stand to be corrected with verifiable proof to the contrary.
More telling is what transpired ahead of the official flag-off of the OGD senatorial campaign and empowerment programme held at Ita Oba Akarigbo, Sagamu, on October 2, 2022. Governor Abiodun, his commissioners, and members of his administration were duly invited. Yet, late instructions were reportedly issued on October 1 directing government officials and APC members to stay away. Some civil servants who attended were subsequently issued queries for participating in what was clearly a political event held on a Sunday. What manner of support could this have been from a governor elected on the same party platform?
*On Structure and Mandate*
We now ask the Governor directly: which structure did he hand over to Senator Daniel? The same structure that failed to deliver even in his own ward and polling unit barely two weeks after the presidential election, despite the full weight of state machinery?
Senator Daniel’s victory in the 2023 general election was unprecedented in Ogun State’s senatorial history. The margin was historic, the mandate unambiguous. According to INEC records, it remains one of the very few senatorial outcomes in the state that was not contested at the election tribunal. Not a single petition. No dispute. The people spoke with unmistakable clarity.
For three years, Governor Abiodun allegedly deployed state machinery to intimidate party leaders and systematically frustrate Senator Daniel out of the party. These efforts failed because Senator Daniel’s political roots in Ogun State run deeper than the temporary leverage of any sitting governor.
Senator Daniel’s mandate was earned in the open, before the people, and at the polls. Why, then, is Governor Abiodun seemingly uncomfortable with open contest, despite having the advantage of incumbency and access to state resources?
So far, the Governor has relied on backroom arrangements, forced consensus, and closed-door manoeuvring to advance his political ambitions. A man truly confident in his structure does not need such tactics.
Senator Daniel, having served two full terms as governor, built institutions, infrastructure, and a political legacy that stands independent of patronage. His Senate mandate requires no retroactive endorsement.
Governor Abiodun’s reference to “negative media attacks” is a familiar deflection. When governance falters, scrutiny is often recast as persecution. The Governor would do better to address the substance of public concerns rather than attributing every critical report to political opponents.
If there is anyone who needs to search his conscience, Governor Dapo Abiodun need only look in the mirror.
