The Scam in Ogun State

Comfort Obi

Ogun State governor, Gbenga Daniel, and members of the House of Assembly led by the Speaker, Tunji Egbetokun, are dancing naked in the market square. The executive and legislative arms of the government are busy doing everything except what they were elected to do.
The incident which has reduced the state to this ridiculous level began to unfold with the impeachment of Titi Oseni as the Speaker of the House of Assembly. Among other reasons, the legislators accused her of being very close to the Executive – the governor.
This, unfortunately, is almost the norm in some Houses of Assembly. They accuse the leadership of the Houses of hobnobbing with the executive, and so sack them. And you wonder how the states would move forward if the executive and the legislature do not work hand-in-hand? In Oseni's place, Tunji Egbetokun was elected. But since then, nothing has been the same. We have been treated to all kinds of pranks, scams and lies.
The removal of Oseni created bad blood between the legislature and the executive. The muted story, within the executive, is that Oseni was removed to pave way for the impeachment of Daniel. Even though the legislators strongly deny this, they are treating Daniel like a leper. And Daniel is making headline news, not on the basis of what he says he has achieved, his five star smiles, or his wife’s flamboyant dressing, but on alleged non-performance, and bad blood (competition?) between him and former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu.
Two weeks ago, the legislators raised the ante. They alleged, in a story which made headlines in newspapers, that they had abandoned their official vehicles because they had just discovered that the state governor installed tracking devices in the cars in order to monitor their movements. For good measure, a photograph of one of the abandoned jeeps was splashed on the cover of a newspaper. The government denied any such monitoring, insisting that the tracking device was installed to keep track of the vehicles, in case any of them is snatched by armed robbers. Now, the face-off has taken a bizarre turn.
On Sunday, July 6, Nigerians were treated to a story which alleged that Ogun State Speaker, Egbetokun, has escaped an assassination attack. The would – be assassins were caught red-handed. And who were they? Chief Abayomi Majekodunmi, Daniel's Chief of Staff, and eight of his aides! A photograph splashed on the front page of The Nation newspaper tells the story. There, a very helpless, bemused and confused (all at once) Majekodunmi stood, with two of his aides kneeling humiliatingly down, with all the “evidences” – guns and catridges – spread out for any doubting Thomas to see.
Briefly, according to the Speaker, Majekodunmi had called him, asking for a meeting (and his house address) with him, apparently to sort out the problems between the governor and the House. On arrival, Egbetokun said, he took Majekodunmi into his bedroom for the discussion. While they were talking, he said, his aides saw those who accompanied the Chief of Staff, open a car-booth, and brought out guns. They raised an alarm, and pronto, security agents came and arrested them. With all due respect to the Speaker, dear readers, if this isn’t a story for the marines, I don’t know what is. But let’s proceed.
When Majekodunmi recovered himself, he denied the allegation. He said he went to the Speaker’s house by 5.00 p.m and was in his bedroom with him. How could he then have, he asked, gone there with assassins to kill him. He said he was on his way to Osogbo to attend the birthday party of his sister, the wife of the governor of Osun State, Olagunsoye Oyinyola, and had his licensed guns, with which he goes for game hunting with the Osun State governor in the booth of his car. Believable as his story is, he added an unbelievable bit – another story for the marines. He said: 'Governor Daniel was poisoned about three weeks ago, and was to be rushed abroad.' He didn’t quite mention names, but he more than hinted. He alleged that Alani Bankole, the father of Dimeji Bankole, the House of Representatives Speaker, was behind the impeachment of Oseni. Drawing from that, one can safely conclude that if the tale about getting at Daniel by impeaching Oseni is anything to go by, then Bankole Senior is after Daniel. He is allegedly paving way for Bankole junior to succeed Daniel. How does that worry Daniel? Is the governor going for a third term?
The truth is that both parties are lying. Is Majekodunmi so stupid that he would go with assassins to the Speaker’s house and have him assassinated in his presence? Is he so daft that he would park his cars outside, for everybody to see, and then assassinate the Speaker? What stopped him from hiring professional assassins? These people should give us the benefit of a little intelligence. What has happened to integrity?
The tale about Daniel being poisoned is another childish fabrication. Who poisoned him, where, how? His Chief of Staff made so much noise about Daniel’s driver being offered N250,000 (only?) to give him away. True? The police should arrest and interrogate Daniel’s driver and let him say who offered him money. Majekodunmi says those after Daniel have infiltrated the rank of his close aides. True? Who are these close aides? How much was given to them? And since they are known, why is Daniel still keeping them?
None of the parties have told us the truth about what is at stake. Majekodunmi says the legislators want to be given N20 million each. But he did not tell us why. The legislators insist that there is no plan to impeach Daniel. If so, why would they allegedly, be asking for money, and why is there no peace in the state? What is obvious for now is that the state has ground to a halt. Nobody is working. Everybody is on a blackmail spree. The legislators say for fear of their safety, they have gone back to their constituencies. They should not be given any respite. Their people should ask them to stop behaving like delinquents, order them back to Abeokuta, to do the job for which they were elected. As for Daniel, he should go back to the drawing board and find out why things are suddenly going wrong. Enough of this theatre of the absurd.