No One Is Above The State, Ogun Tells Gbenga Daniels

Posted by Nwa Diokpa Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria Saturday, August 9th, 2025

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Ogun State Government has refuted claims that there is a political witch hunt of former governor and current Senator, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, after the service of demolition notices was handed on some of his properties.

The government, in a statement issued on Saturday, disclosed that the notices are necessary for a standard urban renewal and town planning audit exercise and not because of a personal grudge.

The development is coming after the media team of Daniel accused Governor Dapo Abiodun’s administration of a “malicious and vindictive abuse of power”.

Daniel’s team alleged that the notices were issued on Friday, August 8, for Daniel’s Sagamu private residence, known as The Asoludero Court, and also his Conference Hotels Limited.

The team believed that the Ogun State government was trying to make use of the Ogun State Urban and Regional Planning and Development Law of 2022 to demolish buildings that were legally constructed long before the law came into being, with some properties dating back to 2004. Also, this was connected to a previous demolition of a property belonging to the wife of the former governor in Ijebu-Ode in 2023.

Reacting, the state government, in a statement by the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Kayode Akinmade, on Saturday, refuted, as he described them, as “blatant distortions of facts”.

According to Akinmade, the notices were part of a development audit being carried out in the Sagamu and Ijebu-Ode Government Reserved Areas, an initiative that affected many other property owners.

Akinmade stated that instead of politicising the issue, Daniel should make use of due process.

He said: “All Otunba Gbenga Daniel needs to do, just like every other person in a similar situation, is to present his planning permit and land title to the relevant government agency for verification within the time specified in the notices, rather than resorting to cheap blackmail.

“Nobody is bigger than the State. Senator Gbenga Daniel is distinguished, no doubt, but he is not bigger than Ogun State. He should submit himself unreservedly to the same laws he once swore twice to uphold.”