Fact Check: Dapo Abiodun picked Yemi Osinbajo, not Tinubu as presidential candidate (Video)

According to Google, a betrayer is a person who says one thing and does another. And the word has synonyms like double-crosser, double-dealer, traitor, two-timer. Judas in the Holy Book is a very good example; someone who betrays under the guise of friendship.

Having gotten that definition out of the way, it is then safe to say that the governor of Ogun State fits the bill.

Then, it is, however, shocking to read and hear his aides using a title befitting of their principal on a reputable and verified performer, when governance is used as an indicator for a leader.

Abiodun’s urchins didn’t deny the fact Otunba Gbenga Daniel’s performance as a governor while in office dwarfed the current governor’s projected performance, even if the constitution allows for a third term.

I actually won’t want to derail from the main focus of this write-up by enumerating, through comparative analysis, the achievements of the Ogidi Omo of Ogun State, a name the good people of the Gateway State jealously guided and exclusively reserved for Otunba Daniel.

To avoid being guilty of code mixing, let me quickly define what Ogidi Omo encapsulates. Ogidi is a Yoruba word that means original, something substantial, honourable and more, depending on the context of use. While Omo simply means child.

Otunba Daniel is one of the few politicians that one can boasts of truly having the real interests of the people at heart. He sees himself as the servant of Ogun people and a son to both the old and young as long as he is called to service. He is the Ogidi Omo of the Gateway State; a name he earned when he was a governor of the state from 2003 to 2011 and several years later, still resonates with him.

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On the other hand, Dapo Abiodun is still seen by many in the state as an unfit occupier of the exalted position of an executive governor. But that is a story for another day.

To the governor and his boys, betrayer is a politician who moves from one political party to the other as long as it best serves only the interest of the people he has sworn to serve.

But in the real sense of it, that is hardly what the world knows as a betrayer.

Come to think of it. How can anyone ever think of dragging in the mud someone of sterling character like Ogidi Omo, when Abiodun’s lifetime curriculum vitae is enmeshed in verifiable criminal and fraudulent activities, especially what is known today as Yahoo Yahoo? Read where the governor Abiodun confirmed this, and also here for Otunba Daniel’s profile.

Betrayer. A title that could best describe Abiodun is being forced around the neck of an impeccable character like Otunba Gbenga Daniel, the Asiwaju Onigbagbo of Ijebu and Remo?

It is public knowledge that before the presidential primary election of the ruling party, All Progressives Congress, Abiodun openly endorsed the former vice president of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo, an alleged political betrayer, against the candidacy of current Nigerian president, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

During the former vice president’s consultation visit with key personalities and party delegates in Ogun State ahead of the presidential primaries at the Presidential Lodge, Ibara, Abeokuta, on the 26th of April, 2022, the governor said the vice president is “eminently qualified” to lead the country.

Abiodun categorically stated that the delegates from Ogun State would support Osinbajo to enable him “to continue with some of the laudable projects of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.”

He said: “The vice president’s presence here is a homecoming.

“We are pleased with his decision to run for the office of the president. He is competent and committed to leading the country in a higher capacity.

“Your steadfastness, integrity, and character are all well known. You are serving this country and the president meritoriously for the last seven years as the vice president.

“We have no doubt that you will do well as the president and we will support you.”

And trust Asiwaju Tinubu, he ensured Abiodun got served when the former officially declared his intention in Ogun State two weeks after.

Not only did Tinubu reveal why Osinbajo, his one time Attorney-General as the then Lagos governor, was a betrayer, Abiodun was christened Eleyi of Ogun State that very day in his presence. For full details, watch the video below.

@freelanews Watch the historical speech of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu before election (Part 4) #foryou #trending #naijapolitics #tiktoknaija ♬ original sound – OtunbaVictor – Freelanews

Did Abiodun protest the new name? Yes, he said and I quote, “We will do the right thing.”

The following day, like a beaten child spoiling to revenge his treatment but on an elder he dares not confront, took to his Twitter handle and wrote in a subtle slide tackle to Tinubu’s emphatic Emilokan (It’s my turn);

“I am not an emperor by any chance and this is not my family inheritance.

“I am holding this position in trust for all the people of this state and I have vowed to be fair, just and equitable and this is the solemn agreement I made between the Almighty God and myself.”

And the rest, they say, was history.

It is now shocking to see Abiodun jumping from one place to the other and at every opportunity to take pictures with President Tinubu, someone he campaigned vigorously against.

Success, they say, has many fathers. If Asiwaju did not emerge Nigerian president, Abiodun would have discarded like a used nylon of satchet water; the exact thing Osinbajo is now facing with him.

The day the former vice president visited the Akarigbo of Remoland when he came to Sagamu during his campaign, the same governor that was claiming he installed Tinubu was the one shouting Omo eni o se di bebere, ka fi ileke s’idi omo elomi up and down.

What the proverb means is that no matter what, one’s child is first considered before an outsider. The outsider here being Tinubu, while Osinbajo was the insider as an Ogun State indigene; Ikenne to be precise.

Stakeholders, including Tinubu himself, were shocked when the video was played for them to confirm the governor said those words to that effect.

Many wondered what happened to his loyalty to Osinbajo, someone he claimed to be his benefactor and the only reason he could become a governor so soon. Who is a betrayer here?

I guess it is a case of betrayer getting betrayed. Sorry Prof.

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Ungrateful. Here is why the title can only fit the current occupier of Oke Mosan. Not only is Abiodun a betrayer, he is also ungrateful.

In setting the records straight, Tinubu, and not Osinbajo as claimed by Abiodun was the one that played a critical role in saving Abiodun from the hands of Ibikunle Amosun, the then outgoing governor of Ogun State, before Abiodun could smell being called a governor.

Otunba Daniel is another factor that ensured his general acceptance with the electorates in the state when he was begging to be made governor. But that is also a story for another day.

So one can imagine how shocking it was for Tinubu as Abiodun’s declaration for the vice president back then dealt an apparent blow to his ambition and human trust.

Before then, Tinubu had met 12 governors elected on the platform of the party in Abuja on April 11, 2022, to solicit support for his ambition with Gov. Abiodun in attendance, took a group picture with him without revealing his sneaky intention of backstabbing him few days later.

This made Tinubu said, while pointing at Abiodun, “This one (eleyi) sitting behind me, Dapo, can he say he could have become a governor but for me?”

Contrary to popular belief, Osinbajo was not in the picture of how Abiodun became what he became. The credit should have been given to a former governor of Ogun State, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, who introduced Abiodun to Tinubu when Amosun sworn that his former appointee as the chairman of Olokola Free Trade Zone, the former proposed site of Dangote Refinery, would never become governor.

Beg pray, what other definition does ungrateful have if not Dapo Abiodun?

The governor’s urchins claimed Otunba Daniel jumped from one party to the other, which made him chameleonic according to them. Infact, they went as far as claiming Tinubu was once upset with him when he left Alliance for Democracy to Peoples Democratic Party.

All these allegations only exist in the figment of the imaginations of Dapo and his boys. Why?

During the 25th anniversary celebration of Krestal Laurel in 2015, a company founded by Otunba Daniel in 1990 before he became governor, Tinubu, a chieftain of APC, cleared the air on the alleged enmity between him and Ogidi Omo, who was then in PDP.

This is made known through Wale Edun when he said there is no truth in the stories that he has been fighting with Otunba Daniel, and they were still good friends.

“I am here representing Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and my presence is to show that there is no friction between Asiwaju and Otunba Gbenga Daniel”

Edun went on to explain that whenever Tinubu drives past the Kresta Laurel building in Maryland, Lagos, he remembers the enormous contributions Daniel made to the take off of his administration in 1999 and was immensely grateful.

He revealed that the Peoples Democratic Party chieftain was very gracious to donate the Kresta Laurel building to Tinubu’s campaign team at the time it was just being completed.

“The Daniels also made a section of their home available to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu whenever he worked too late and could not go home. After the election, he also allowed us to use it for the Transition Committee where he was a member”

On behalf of Tinubu, he wished Kresta Laurel well, and prayed that God will keep them and sustain Daniel, his wife, Olufunke, and their business for the next 25 years and beyond.

Even Abiodun’s principal, Osinbajo, corroborated the assertion because in his speech he emphasized the contributions Otunba Daniel made to the beginning of what has now become the ‘Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu political machine’.

He revealed that both men’s respect for each other is mutual and it was a “mere rumour that they were fighting each other”.

If moving from AD to PDP and back to APC because of OGD’s love for the interests of his people is a crime and what Abiodun and his urchins called betrayal, then it would be fair to know that Abiodun was also a founding member of PDP in Ogun State. Before that, Abiodun was a member of the defunct United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP), yet his urchins do not believe he deserves to be called a betrayer by their own definition of what the word means.

Otunba Daniel worked for the emergence of candidate Tinubu at the APC primary

Here are some few facts about Otunba Daniel’s participation toward the emergence of his long time friend and ally at the primary.

Not only did Ogidi Omo rallied the Ogun State delegates to vote massively for the president at the presidential primary in Abuja, it is a verifiable fact that he also convinced delegates from Plateau State to do the same. These delegates from the two states were piloted to Eagle Square on instructions of OGD by some associate of the governor.

For your information, OGD was the chairman of Tinubu/Shettima Elders Forum and he worked tirelessly in supervising, intervening and successfully resolving challenges in various locations from Abuja.

Four years earlier, Otunba Daniel with other principal stakeholders toured the entire south west preaching the gospel of Asiwaju’s candidacy.

Being the chairman of the Tinubu/Shettima Independent Campaign Council, assisted by Sen Gbenga Obadara, the former governor and his allies spent their own resources without any support from the governor.

But eventually, the former governor was forced to limit his campaign to Ogun East where he has a mandate because Dapo Abiodun did not encourage them to go beyond his zone.

However, the question is did OGD campaign for Asiwaju before the d-day? And the answer is yes.

OGD team was the first to launch his campaign with the formal flag off being on October 2, 2022.

The current Special Adviser on Monetary Policy to the Presidency, Wale Edun, Sen. Ganiu Solomon and Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro represented the Special Guest of Honour, Tinubu, at the event.

Abiodun, who was supposed to be the chief host refused to come nor sent representative. He didn’t stop at that, he did everything to frustrate the success of the event by directing that no one should go near the venue. There were reports he ensured some public servants who attended were queried.

In fact, part of the problem was that the governor said OGD should not start any campaign until he was ready by which time there was not enough time to go round.

Not deterred, the OGD team went to all the nooks and crannies of Ogun East, campaigning on grassroots for Asiwaju, Abiodun and all other APC candidates. He held 11 rallies while 103 wards were toured.

It is an open secret that Abiodun is at war against Otunba Daniel because the latter is the only one in the way of the former becoming a senator after his days in office as governor; both being of Ogun East Senatorial District.

May God keep us alive beyond 2027, Ogidi Omo will definitely seek re-election, while Abiodun will retire to Amororo.

Let me rest my pen here and allow the reading public to be the judge as to who is a betrayer, ungrateful and all in one. Ire o!

Rtn. Victor Ojelabi

Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.