Dapo Abiodun political vendetta: What Akinmade must know

The Dapo Abiodun political vendetta narrative is growing louder across Ogun State, especially after fresh demolition threats targeting properties linked to former governor and current senator, Otunba Gbenga Daniel.

Also read: Political persecution in Ogun State: Abiodun moves against Otunba Gbenga Daniel with demolition threats again

In the early hours today, news broke that the Ogun State governor had issued a demolition order on all of Senator Daniel’s properties.

As expected, his special adviser on Information and Strategy, Kayode Akinmade, sprang to his defense, dismissing the senator’s media team’s call for caution as a mere “wolf cry.”

However, Akinmade; an indigene of Idanre in Ondo State and former Commissioner for Information under Governor Olusegun Mimiko, may not fully grasp the scars left by his boss’s past actions in Ogun.

Just two years ago, without prior warning, Governor Abiodun ordered the demolition of a multimillion-naira complex in Ijebu Ode belonging to the wife of Otunba Daniel, Yeye Olufunke Daniel, under the cover of night.

Bulldozers rolled in while residents slept, reducing a ₦5 billion structure; completed and awaiting commissioning, to rubble.

The destruction was so thorough that, as locals say, “a dynamite would have done a cleaner job.”

At the time, Abiodun denied any political motivation, just as he’s doing now.

On September 11, 2023, during a public event in Obafemi Owode, he recounted an old dispute over a different property in Abeokuta, portraying himself as a facilitator rather than an oppressor.

Hear him;

“Let me take you down memory lane. The purported owner of this property, when I assumed office in 2019, had a property in Abeokuta. It was meant to be a hotel. My predecessor had sealed that property for eight years. He had issued a stop order. He was going to demolish that building, but for my intervention, I pleaded with him. That building remained under lock and key until I resumed office. The first day I was sworn in was the very day the owner moved into that property for the first time in eight years. And today, the property is called Conference Hotel in Abeokuta.

“How do you now begin to accuse the same me that facilitated the completion of that project despite different court actions that were brought then, despite different charges by the EFCC that were hanging around the project? I actually commissioned that project alongside the former Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. You are now trying to use media, trying to attract unnecessary sympathy, playing the underdog and saying that I, Dapo Abiodun, demolished a property that first I didn’t know it was yours; your name is not on that property. You never came forward to say this property is yours.

“You expect that someone, who is a serving Senator, a former Governor of this state, would show a level of more responsibility. I have said it that I, Dapo Abiodun, if I have a building that violates the building code, bring it down.

“And by this, I am sending a strong warning to all of us across the State. There are many of you who have buildings without approvals. There are many of you who don’t even have C of O. If you have built without approval, the long arm of the law will soon be catching up with you. We will not tolerate lawlessness in this state. We will not be defined by lawlessness and half hazard development when you just build anyhow.”

But his lengthy justifications failed to convince critics nor the courts, particularly when legal battles later exposed glaring political undertones.

The truth is simple: the demolition was a political vendetta.

It’s worth reminding Akinmade that the Asoludero Court, now reportedly in the governor’s sights, once served as a refuge for Abiodun himself in March 2019 when he sought support from OGD against his predecessor.

On that day, Otunba Daniel not only endorsed him but also instructed his political network to rally behind him in the elections.

Politics, however, has a short memory.

Also read: Dapo Abiodun’s rudderless leadership reduces governance to photo ops and empty rhetoric

Akinmade, we know you’re doing your job. But as you defend the governor, remember; Ogun State has a long memory of its own. And no bulldozer should ever creep into the night to erase Asoludero from its soil.

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.