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Remmy Hazzan, a former Special Adviser to Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun, says the governor would fail in his efforts to “discredit” the Ogun East Senator, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, and retrieve the 2027 ticket from him.
Daniel and Abiodun have been locked in a fierce political battle over the 2027 senatorial ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the district.
Last week, there were reports in the media that Daniel’s purported suspension for alleged anti-party activities had been affirmed by the state APC.
But Daniel’s loyalists from all the nine Local Government Areas of Ogun East dismissed the purported suspension at a press conference held on Tuesday at Daniel’s Asoludero Court residence in Sagamu.
They said the ‘suspension’ is rooted in Abiodun’s senatorial ambition ahead of the 2027 election.
Responding to questions from newsmen, Hazzan, who was Deputy Speaker of the State House of Assembly, gave the background to the rivalry between Daniel and Abiodun.
He said the governor, who has been eyeing the Ogun East seat in 2027, never wanted Daniel to secure the ticket in 2023, fearing it would be hard to retrieve the same from the current Senator ahead of the next election.
“What the governor wants is who can be his placeholder for the Senate that he wants in 2027, and he sensed that in 2023, such in the hands of OGD would be a difficult trap, and so, he never wanted OGD. He didn’t pretend that he didn’t want him. At the end of the day, OGD got the ticket, and he never hid his contempt, hatred for the fact that that happened,” Hazzan, who served in Abiodun’s first term, said.
He said the governor, while trying to vent his anger on Daniel, “has been approaching the whole process with what I will call the strategy of killing the mosquito with the sledgehammer.”
He said, “What he (Abiodun) has done so far are efforts to discredit the man OGD, but each step he takes, he fails. We know he will try more, we just want the world to know what is going on.
“But we want to promise him that he would try more, but he would fail more.”
He also slammed the governor as one politician whose prowess is “below par.”
Dismissing the purported suspension, Hazzan said, “As far as we are concerned, no suspension took place. What’s going on is called troubleshooting just so that they can hang on to something.”
Also speaking at the conference, the senator’s media aide, Steve Oliyide, insisted that the announcements should not be taken seriously, noting that there had been no official communication of any offence, no allegation, no invitation to an investigative panel, and no letter of suspension.
He said, “We are talking about a former governor of the state and a serving senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. What happens to the Chairman of the Party in the State? Where is the State Secretary of the party? It therefore suggests that such announcements cannot be given any seriousness, especially because there was no official communication about any offence, no allegation levied, no invitation to attend any investigative panel, and no letter of suspension.
“We hereby respond as follows: Is it appropriate in a well-structured party like ours, where we have a state chairman, secretary, and other elected officials, for the chief press secretary of the state government and an appointee, most especially the spokesperson of the governor, who himself is an interested party or who has a vested interest, to speak for and on behalf of the All Progressives Congress in Ogun State?
“To answer this challenge, we have no doubt, and let no one be deceived, that this is all connected to the politics of 2027 and especially the APC ticket for the Ogun East Senatorial District.”
SB E-news.
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