Witness Recounts How Awujale Disgraced Otunba Gbenga Daniel Out Of His Palace!!

I wish to state that I was disappointed, though not surprised, by the developments at the palace of the Awujale of Ijebuland earlier today, Thursday, June 29, during the visit of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the royal father as part of his activities in consulting and interfacing with critical stakeholders in the State.

Prominent indigenes of the State led by a former Governor and elder statesman, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, had earlier visited the palace and later left for the MKO Abiola Stadium to receive the President and follow him back to the palace. But shortly after he left, a former governor and Senator representing Ogun East Senatorial District, Otunba Gbenga Daniel who was not officially invited to welcome the President, walked in and went straight to the living room of the Awujale where, quite naturally, there was a sitting arrangement for dignitaries with accompanying name tags. Daniel wasn’t on the protocol list of Awujale to receive the President. That was the reason no seat was reserved for him. But he gate-crashed and imposed himself on the palace.

The seats were in the order of protocol, namely the Deputy Governor, who represented the Governor at the event, followed by Baba Olusegun Osoba, then the Akarigbo of Remo and Chairman of the Ogun State Council of Obas, among others. But to the surprise of everyone, including the paramount ruler of Ijebuland, the Awujale, Oba Sikiru Adetona, who is the host, Daniel audaciously removed the tag attached to the seat specially reserved for Baba Olusegun Osoba and sat on the seat. The unconscionable move left everyone present completely stunned.

Swiftly, and to the admiration of many, Baba Awujale, in his no-nonsense manner, called Daniel to order.

But, taking the fully deserved royal rebuke as an affront, the Awujale urged him to walk out of the palace. Daniel angrily stormed out of the palace and the compound to wait for the entourage of Mr President, which he eventually used as a face-saving tactic to come back into the palace.

I was personally watching him from my vantage position at the palace when the President eventually arrived, and the senator couldn’t find a befitting place to sit among the dignitaries. But for the intervention of Governor Dapo Abiodun who asked one of his staff to organize a sear for him, he would have stood up throughout the event. Even at that, Daniel still looked terribly dejected and obviously angry and could not get the impulse of the tongue-in-cheek statement made by the President about him that day. Dapo Abiodun hasn’t seen anything compared to his treacherous behaviour toward President Bola Ahmed Tinubu during the Alliance for Democracy days and when he eventually assumed office as the PDP Governor of Ogun State.

Yes, that is always the fate of charlatans, who seek to run a deadly race to the top without any recourse to decency and ethical standards.
As an Oba, I felt diminished by Daniel’s utter lack of decorum. Having experienced his political perversity for eight years and knowing his unstable disposition in the larger national politics, I was not, as I asserted earlier, shocked by his shameless public show. Gbenga Daniel typically aspires towards all that is dark and devious.

With his arrogant move to denigrate a revered personality like Aremo Osoba and treat old age with such contempt, Daniel exposed himself as an irritant and desperate power monger.