A former Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Ogun State, Sina Kawonise, has accused his former benefactor, a former governor of the state, Otunba Gbenga Daniel of misleading his followers into the Peoples Democratic Party.
Kawonise said this at the Labour Party Secretariat, Adatan, Abeokuta shortly after he was announced as the party’s governorship candidate in the state in the 2015 elections.
He had served under Daniel’s administration during his second term in office.
He added that those who defected with Daniel that were promised automatic waivers, had suddenly discovered it was not true, noting that the defectors were being treated as second ‘class members.’
However, in a swift reaction, the former governor had denied this claim, stressing that Kawonise was being blinded by his ambition.
One of Daniel’s media aides, Steve Oliyide, said “Kawonise is obviously an ambition-driven person who was nowhere when Otunba Gbenga Daniel was campaigning for governorship in 2003 and 2011. “wish him luck in his political sojourn.”
It would be recalled that Daniel and some of his followers hitherto in the LP defected at an elaborate reunification rally last week Tuesday.
The defectors had claimed that LP was dead in the state but the state chairman of the party, Olabode Simeon; the Secretary, Sunday Oginni and the financial Secretary, Arabambi Abayomi said they had consulted widely and endorsed Kawonise as the party governorship candidate.
Kawonise, said he refused to follow Daniel to the PDP because “it is a party of godfathers that is only interested in imposing their godsons on the people.”
He said, the present composition of the PDP in the state could not serve the interest of the people.
He said, “If you look at the array of godfathers in the PDP, you will know that the party can never serve the people of Ogun State.
“Those who defected were misled that they will get universal waivers, but, unfortunately for them when they got there, the party did not give them waivers.
“Even, those who had defected to the PDP have not got waiver. So, as I speak with you, those who defected cannot participate in the delegate election and cannot be voted for. When they said this, our people have started coming back in droves.”
Oliyide further said Daniel has played his politics in the state and Nigeria at large in a more responsive and responsible way and took the interest of followers seriously.
“Is he saying his appointment as a commissioner was also misleading?
“In 2003, when Otunba Gbenga Daniel contested for election in Ogun State defeating an incumbent, a Sina Kawonise was nowhere to be found.
“The Labour Party he is now carrying around, is he the creator or is he the one that mobilised people into the party? Where did he get his 25 per cent people that have returned to the party? He should show the world. We shall not continue to bandy words with ambition-driven character. 2015 is around the corner and we shall know who is misleading.”
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