On Sunday morning, we were awoken by disturbing reports of the destruction of DATKEM Plaza, a sprawling four-storey structure in Ijebu Ode, by agents of the state government.
Eyewitnesses claim thugs stormed the building, situated on Folagbade Street, at about 3:00 a.m., under the protection of over 200 policemen. Earlier on Saturday, a notorious governor’s thug, Akibu Efele, had been spotted patrolling the area with his boys.
Before now, the building, owned by Yeye Olufunke Daniel, wife of Ogun East Senator and former Governor Gbenga Daniel, became a thing of interest to state agents who raised all manners of flimsy issues despite the structure fulfilling all regulatory conditions before commencement of construction.
Yet, despite several interrogation, state physical planning officials found no good reason to bring the structure down and rebuffed pressures from their higher-ups to demolish it. The civil servants’ professionalism has earned one director a suspension from work, we heard.
This could further explain the desperate resort to use of thugs in the dead of the night. As the elders would say: _”oru laa se’ka!”_
Dear Ogun people, we are looking at nothing else but a desperate political vendetta. Since the fall out of the 2023 governorship election, where Governor Dapo Abiodun lost woefully, he has incorrectly pinpointed Senator Daniel as the source of his failures and has apparently vowed to go after him and his properties.
But that is a mission drenched in folly and bound to fail. Where two elephants fight, it is the “grass” (common people) that suffer. This is a case of cutting one’s nose to spite the face.
Even if Governor Abiodun decides to demolish all of Governor Daniel’s properties in Ogun State, it is the people (workers, suppliers, users etc.) who should benefit from the structure that would suffer the most.
The Daniels are forever blessed beyond depending on that property to feed.
In this instance, it is the people in and around Ijebu Ode, who would be employed by businesses hosted in that edifice, that are the biggest losers.
As it stands, over 100 persons are earning their living by working on site at DATKEM. At completion, the plaza, which was billed for commissioning by this month’s end, and planned to host a banking hall, Senatorial Office and other businesses, should provide jobs for even more. But by its unconscionable acts, a government that keeps failing at critical development indices has again truncated the efforts to get people gainfully employed.
While these _arunguns_ are stealing the state blind and stashing away their loot in foreign bank accounts, OGD remains resolute in enhancing homegrown capacities, investing locally in the real sector and providing avenues for employment to thousands of jobless youths.
Instructively, Ijebu Ode, the fading capital of Ijebuland, is crying for development, yet a government is frustrating private efforts in the name of political vindictiveness.
One just hopes these shenanigans do not discourage other Ijebu sons and daughters from investing in their land.
Abiodun will come and go, just like his predecessors. But would our land survive from the drawbacks and havocs meted out to it in the name of politics?
