There seems to be no let-up in the Ogun State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) crisis.
Governor Gbenga Daniel yesterday alleged that PDP rented the crowd at its rally in Abeokuta last Saturday.
The rally was President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign launch in the state where governorship candidate Adetunji Olurin was presented to party members.
Olurin emerged from the parallel primary of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo faction of the party in the state.
Daniel’s factional candidate Gboyega Isiaka, who was rejected by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), following a court judgment, defected to little known Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN) on whose platform he and others in Daniel’s camp are contesting. But Daniel insisted he would remain within the PDP.
Although Daniel made peace with Obasanjo on the eve of the rally, that did not stop the crowd from booing him each time his name was mentioned. Obasanjo advised against the action.
Yesterday, during a special programme in his honour by teachers in Sagamu, Daniel said it was a hired crowd that booed him at the rally.
He described some of those aspiring to lead the state as "undertakers".
Daniel said: "My great teachers, you are the conscience of this country. Some people parade themselves as the conscience of the country. How can they be the conscience of the country when they don’t have the capacity to do what is right without minding whose ox is gored?
"A bad man cannot be a conscience of the country. Let me assure you, when the time comes, there will be more revelations. On Saturday, they hired some people. We have found out; they hired people to the stadium in Abeokuta. The people they hired have now come to us to confess.
"Some of them who came from Lagos, have confessed; they said each of them was paid N2000 to come to the rally to boo OGD. Great teachers, how much did the governor give you before you came here today?
"The undertakers have come; by the special grace of God, their coffin will have nobody. When they speak in public, they speak from the perspective of what they have done and the way they are doing things.
"Their imagination is that the way they do things is the way everybody would do things; they did not understand, they cannot imagine that God has been truly with us. They cannot even understand how we did what we did."
"In the last eight years that I have been serving you as governor, something tells me that I’m still going to go back to teaching," he said.
But the PDP in Ogun State has denied Daniel’s claim that it hired the crowd to its rally.
The Daniel diatribe came a day after Olurin told the governor no to spend the state’s cash to campaign for Isiaka.
Oluring said: "Our highly impeccable source hinted that the governor has directed the chairman of the 20 council caretaker committees to raise N25million each and remit same to him within 72 hours of the illegal request."
Daniel’s spokesman Adegbenro Adebanjo said the allegation was "all lie, and an absolute falsehood".
Also yesterday, Ogun State Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) candidate Ibikunle Amosun criticised Obasanjo for attempting to distance himself from Daniel.
In a statement by its campaign organisation, Amosun said: "With all due respect, Baba Obasanjo is the last person to rate the performance of Daniel low in Ogun state. Why? He was the very source of strength of Daniel in 2003 and in 2007. He supported him with everything and at several fora praised him to high heavens as the best thing to happen to the state.
"Before the 2007 elections and during the campaigns,OBJ at several fora lavished praises on OGD and when the people of Ogun state rejected the PDP at the polls, Baba Obasanjo collaborated in the stealing of the peoples votes in 2007. Is this not a case of Papa deceive pikin or it is Pikin deceive Papa(PDP)?
"Now the evil romance is over and the people are being told another story just because they want to market another person to the unsuspecting people of Ogun state as governor. I think what is happening is another attempt by the PDP to deceive the good people of Ogun state again. Baba Obasanjo should take a large chunk of the blame for the failure of the PDP government in Ogun state for the last eight years.
"Baba Obasanjo should actually be taking a back seat in the 2011 polls because of the ignoble and visionless role he played in 2003 and 2007 elections in the state. Hr just admitted that the man he presented has failed the people of the state.
"Yes, Baba Obasanjo is a respected leader in the state, but he cannot be allowed to be toying with the future of the people of the Gateway state the way he is doing. He is the last person in Ogun state to endorse anybody. He brought Daniel that he is now acknowledging as a failure and he too should accept that he failed along with him. He should accept that his judgment was faulty on Daniel in 2003 and in 2007".
Amosun added, "if he is tacitly accepting that the choice of Daniel was bad, how are we sure that the man he is backing now will not further ruin our state? We cannot get anything good from the PDP. Whatever a snake gives birth to must be long and poisonous."
Running-mate to PDP candidate Mr Tunde Oladunjoye, said Daniel is day-dreaming.
Speaking through his media aide, Mr Austin Oniyokor, Oladunjoye said Daniel was booed and jeered at by the people of Ogun state who are disenchanted and disillusioned with his administration.
"We did not hire crowd for the rally in Abeokuta. Those who attended our rally were neatly clothed in white and purple and PDP colours. Is he saying people were hired and clothed in those colours?
"Look at the kind of rally he organised in Sagamu. Students and teachers were commandeered to attend using principals and the Teaching Service Commission to coerce them. This confirms what Prof. Wole Soyinka said that Daniel runs a government of bill boards and hypocrisy. It is worse than that of the late Sani Abacha," he said.
Oladunjoye asked Daniel to stop clutching at straws.He asked him to start "preparing his handover note" for the in - coming government.
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