Former governor of Ogun state, Mr. Gbenga Daniel, last Tuesday suffered humiliations as he was ordered out of the Hilltop residence of former President Olusegun Obasanjo by security men.
Daniel, News Investigators gathered, was at the Abeokuta Hilltop residence penultimate Tuesday to apologize to the former president over the simmering disaffection between them and to also intimate him with his plan to officially return to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) the next day.
The former governor fell out with Obasanjo over the control of PDP in the state with the climax being the sharp division within their ranks in the events leading to the 2011 general elections, with Obasanjo running out Daniel who later defected to another party.
Sources revealed that Daniel had a premonition of the fate that awaits him on that visit and had expressed the fear, “but was persuaded by his associates who insisted that courtesy demands that he reach out to ‘Baba’ instead of him reading about his return to PDP on pages of newspapers.
“He then rode to the residence in a vehicle belonging to Sarafa Tunji Ishola,( former minister of Solid Minerals), with Sarafa on the driver’s seat.
“The security men on sighting the former minister opened the gate and ushered the guests into the compound when suddenly one of them (securitymen) spotted Daniel.
The car was immediately flagged down, as the securitymen told Mr. Sarafa that they have been instructed not to allow the former governor into the premises.
“Not even the passionate pleas by the former minister would make them reconsider their position. They insisted that until Baba gives a counter-order, they will not burge,” the sources added.
Efforts to speak to the former governor and Mr. Sarafa proved abortive as neither of them could be reached on their cell phones.
However, a journalist-turned politician who is close to the former governor, Mr. Malik Ibitoye, said there can be no such incident between Obasanjo and Daniel. “It is a figment of the imagination of the author,” he said.
According to Ibitoye, “Baba could not have done that to the former governor because they are very close. Governor Daniel have unfettered access to Baba’s residence. And l can tell you that he goes there anytime he needs to see him,” Ibitoye added.
