Daud Olatunji
In a heated exchange of accusations and counter-accusations, the political landscape of Ogun State has been rocked by a fierce clash between former governor Gbenga Daniel and incumbent Governor Dapo Abiodun over the controversial Agro Cargo Airport project, amidst allegations of another staggering N64 billion scandal.
PLATFORM TIMES reports that Daniel fired the first salvo when he granted an interview in a national newspaper and declared that despite the controversial Agro Cargo Airport being his initiative, he was not accorded the deserved accolades.
This, expectedly, did not go well with Abiodun, who launched his response through his media aides, including party stalwart, accusing Daniel of insincerity.”
Reacting to the attack against his boss, Steve Oliyide, a media aide to Gbenga Daniel, fired back at Governor Abiodun and his allies, vehemently refuting claims of mismanagement and secrecy surrounding the Agro Cargo Airport project.
Oliyide raised concerns that the project may become another addition to the list of unfinished projects in the state.
He emphasized that the project was conceived as a Built, Operate, and Transfer initiative by private investors to avoid burdening Ogun State taxpayers.
Oliyide further questioned the allocation of funds to the project, arguing that essential steps such as land acquisition, surveys, and approvals constitute the majority of the groundwork for airport construction, which he claims were overlooked in the accusations against Daniel’s administration.
He said “Can we discuss these Significant steps on the agro cargo airport. Locate the claims of achievements within the realm of “Airport on PowerPoint”.
“What percentage will you rate these efforts if the claims are true in the process of building an airport.
“Approvals, acquisition of land, surveys etc forms more than 70% work in construction of an airport.
“ Anybody can award contracts which is far less than 30% of the process. A man wants to build a house, he did not procure the land, no architectural and structural designs, no government approval, no survey, etc he just met an empty land and assumed it was free to use and ordered the construction of his house and now boasts I am a landlord..
“ OGD (Otunba Gbenga Daniel ) was not desperate to award contracts from Ogun State tax Payer’s money. The project was conceptualised as a Built, Operate and Transfer by private investors.
“The original concept was to leverage Global funds available for such projects without using money that could be used for the welfare Ogun State workers and citizens.
“The question is, why use Ogun State people’s money when there are willing investors to put their money into such projects. Those who go into such sinister procurements using the people’s commonwealth know why they do so and the citizens also know.
“The reason why they opted for awarding to Craneburg (or Access) the people know too. Sadly what we are hearing is that the bulk of the “reason” has now been lost and Ogun State will have to bleed again for the next three years with the N64b allocated as annual Security Votes which were meant to recoup the “losses”.
“It is becoming disheartening or frightening to hear and watch that the Airport which Ogun State people “assume” to be theirs is considered one of the “Six Unfinished Projects” of an individual.
“ Hopefully, we will hear the truth about this Craneburg and Stonestack businesses all connected to the underhand procurement and the reason why Ogun State taxpayers money had to be tied to the airport.
“ I think it is time the government came out clean and very open on this Procurement as it relates to the airport. Who Owns Ogun Agro-Cargo Airport?
“How much of Tax Payers’ money has gone into it. Government Business cannot continue to be conducted in secrecy.”
… Daniel Suffering From ‘Hallucination of Serial Failure- APC
On the other side of the spectrum, Governor Abiodun’s camp, through the All Progressives Congress (APC) Publicity Secretary, Tunde Oladunjoye, launched a scathing attack on Daniel’s legacy.
Oladunjoye condemned Daniel for what he described as a revisionist attempt to rewrite history and evade responsibility for his administration’s failures.
He portrayed Abiodun’s leadership as a stark contrast to Daniel’s, highlighting the current governor’s integrity and purposeful leadership in contrast to what he termed as Daniel’s years of misrule characterized by fraud and political assassinations.
Oladunjoye emphasized that the Agro Cargo Airport project, announced during Daniel’s tenure, remained stagnant until Abiodun assumed office, underscoring what he described as Daniel’s failure to deliver on his promises to the people of Ogun State.
The clash between Daniel and Abiodun has reignited old grievances and exposed deep-rooted divisions within the political landscape of Ogun State.
Oladunjoye wrote “The recent interview of having the grand or master plan for what Governor Dapo Abiodun has been accomplishing is not only self-ridiculing, it is also a shameful acceptance of failure on the part of Mr. Gbenga Daniel.
“His interview and comment on Governor Dapo Abiodun reek of deep envy and insensitive lack of modesty.
“The intolerant man should be told that a plan, no matter how grand, superb or masterly, remains nothing but a mere plan that can take no one nowhere.
“The Ogun Agro Cargo Airport envisaged by the Daniel Administration was not more than a PowerPoint proposal that never left the computer system.
“ A whopping sum of four billion naira was paid for “feasibiiity study on the Agro Cargo Airport through a female Economic Adviser. Similar billions of naira was also paid for various “master plan” by Daniel that started and ended with PowerPoint presentation.
“ He should be very thankful that successive administrations after him have not asked for the refund of billions of naira spent on PowerPoint presentations of disused “master plans”.
“Since it is now obvious that Mr. Daniel is still hunted by his inglorious past , one will advise him to make honest and genuine reconciliation with God and those he had brazenly offended and ridiculed and stop using the press as the “fall guy”.
“As his alter ego, one of his commissioners then, used to tell him: “For God’s sake, you are the Governor of this state”; I say to this intolerant politician: “For God’s sake, you are no longer the Governor of this state”!
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