Former Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, has told of a purported attempt he made to reconcile ex-Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola with President Bola Tinubu ahead of the 2023 presidential election that brought the incumbent into office.
Aregbesola was a Commissioner in Lagos while Tinubu held sway as the State governor.
The former Osun governor was also Tinubu’s man Friday until they both fell out on account of the acrimony between Aregbesola and his successor, Adegboye Oyetola, the reigning minister of Marine and Blue Economy, who is the President’s blood relative.
Daniel, currently representing Ogun East in the Senate in an interview with The Nation, said in the build-up to the 2023 presidential election while galvanising support for Tinubu, then All Progressives Congress candidate, he tried to convince Aregbesola to support his former principal.
According to the Senator, “We formed a committee. And Bola Tinubu did not send us. We felt that of all of them, he was the most experienced, he was the most qualified, and he was the most senior.
“It’s not as if some people didn’t also come to me and say, look, OGD, it is you we want to use. And I said ah, no, no, no. Tinubu is running o (laughs) No, forget it! But some of us fell into that kind of temptation.
“There’s none of them I didn’t go to see. We went to Ekiti, we saw Kayode Fayemi. I went and saw Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. I said ‘Ogbeni, what’s wrong with you? Ah! Kilo nsele (what’s going on)?
“Look at me; we both know how…What’s going on? Don’t allow yourself to be used, and all of that.”