Gbenga Daniel resigns from politics

The director-general of Atiku Abubakar’s campaign organisation and former governor of Ogun State Gbenga Daniel has retired from partisan politics, a letter he sent to the PDP leadership on Thursday shows.
The reason for his retirement, he said, were “personal”.

“This is to inform you of my intention to resign from active and partisan politics with effect from today, the 14th day of March 2019,” Daniel said in the letter, a copy of which The Guardian saw on Saturday.

“My decision in this regard is entirely personal to me.”

His move away from politics, Daniel said, will allow him to devote more time to charity and resuscitate his non-partisan political leadership academy, which he established a few years ago.

His move away from politics, Daniel said, will allow him to devote more time to his charity and resuscitate his non-partisan political leadership academy, which he established a few years ago.

Daniel’s letter addressed to the national chairman of the People’s Democratic Party showed his regret at the fortune of the party during the last governorship election in Ogun State.

Daniel threw his weight behind the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, which his party sought to dislodge at the centre.

His support for APC’s Dapo Abiodun, Daniel insisted, was because a court foisted a candidate not acceptable to the leadership of the PDP on it.

“Whereas the national leadership of our party, recognized one candidate for the 2019 election, by court pronouncements another candidate, and in compliance with those court orders, which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recognised was on the INEC list,” Daniel said.

“The candidates recognized by INEC were not acceptable to the national leadership of the party. Our situation was then compounded because the candidate which the court and INEC recognised and accepted as valid has also been expelled by the party.”

That situation made him respond to “the yearnings of our people and joined others in emplacing an administration that we believe will better serve the interests of our people than what currently exists.”

Abiodun eventually won the election, defeating APM’s Adekunle Akinlade, who enjoyed the support of the current state governor Ibikunle Amosun, who is a member of APC.

Buruji Kashamu, the candidate of the PDP in the election, was expelled from the party along with Samiu Sodipo, Bayo Adebayo and Segun Seriki on July 23, 2018.

Although the PDP did not expressly give any reason for expelling Kashamu, he has, however, been battling drug-related scandal for several months.

Kashamu was indicted in an Illinois court in 1998 over conspiracy to distribute heroin, AFP reported.

He was arrested in Britain that December but ultimately convinced British authorities that the drug trafficking evidence in fact related to his brother and that US investigators had confused the two men.

A British court approved his release in 2003 and Kashamu returned to Nigeria, where he became a major funder of the PDP.