Lagos — On June 29, 2009, another ugly chapter was opened in the history of political crisis in Ogun State. The nation was shocked and assaulted with a nude photograph of a member of the State House of Assembly, Hon Olawale Alausa holding a fetish object apparently swearing to a blood oath. The photograph appeared on the front page of a national newspaper said to be owned by the governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel who is locked in a survival battle with members of the state legislature.

According to the newspaper report, the young legislator with a physique of a boxer and a member of the G15 opposed to Daniel was supposed to be swearing to a secret oath of loyalty to abide with the dictates of a group in the state believed to be planning for the impeachment of the governor. According to the report, any breach of the oath would result in the death of the first child of the person who swore in to the oath.

The report also alleged that the masterminds of the oath- taking were the father of an Abuja-based politician, a senator, a former governor, former minister and another prominent politician in the state. Fetish items allegedly used included blood, cow head and calabash.

Although, that was not the first secret oath scandal the nation has witnessed, the case of Okija shrine where some political office holders in some states in the South East were dragged to the shrine to pledge their loyalties to their godfathers instead of the nation is still fresh in the memory. In fact the Okija Shrine scandal nearly consumed Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State.

However, the political crisis in Ogun State has moved into a dangerous trend as the combatants appeared desperate on a destruction mission against the opponents. But how did the Gateway State find itself in this mess? The brewing crisis blew open on May 15,2008 when Mrs Titi Oseni, the then Speaker of the State House of Assembly was removed from office .

A new Speaker, Hon. Samson Tunji Egbetokun, representing Obafemi-Owode constituency was elected to replace Oseni. Sources said that the impeachment exercise infuriated Daniel who voiced his opposition against the emergence of Egbetokun as Speaker. Daniel's preference, according to sources was for Hon. Yemi Coker, said to be his loyalist.

The governor was reported to have met serially with the legislators, during which he demanded that Oseni be returned. He also invited former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida to Sagamu in order to persuade the legislators to let peace reign and return Oseni back to office. But the lawmakers rebuffed these entreaties .

The governor was livid, He regarded the incident as a dangerous move which if not checked could pave the way for his removal from office.

Those who opposed Daniel in the state accused him of stifling dissent. Specifically, he was said to have shut those opposed to his style of leadership out of appointments and patronage. Besides he was accused of using his appointees to oppress and harass those opposed to him. A source in the opposition camp said "The Governor considers anyone who disagrees with him a traitor. He considers himself a god in the party. All he wants is bootlicking and he encourages this by patronising only those who say yes to him"

Another source linked the crisis in the state to Daniel's alleged stranglehold on the party which he said had destroyed the PDP structure in the state. "The governor has deliberately shut out elders such as Chief Jubril Martins-Kuye, Chief Sule Onabiyi, Doyin Okupe and even our lawmakers, the Speaker, Dimeji Bankole, Iyabo Obasanjo, Deji Mustapha and other members of the House of Representatives. Another root cause of the crisis was linked to the governor's alleged preference for a candidate of Yewa/Awori origin as his successor in 2011. The move which has not gone down well with notable Egba leaders including former president Olusegun Obasanjo.

But Daniel was quoted to have hinged his support for a Yewa /Awori man in 2011 to the fact that they've never been governors before. Chief Bisi Onabanjo an Ijebu man was governor between 1979 to 1983, Chief Olusegun Osoba who ruled between 1992 to 1993 and 1999-2003 is an Egba man, while the incumbent governor is from Remo Division.

But the Egba would not have any of this. They argued that if they failed to produce the governor in 2011, they would have to wait till 2019, a period of 16 years when a Yewa man would have completed two terms. As the crisis continued to assume dangerous dimension every day, the state continues to be on the news apparently for wrong reasons. Sometimes ago, members of the G15 accused the executive arm of hatching a plot to kill them. This was sequel to an alleged attempt on the life of the Speaker on 16th July. Consequently, the lawmakers fled the state. According to Egbetokun, the suspected assassins were led by Dr. Abayomi Majekodunmi, Chief of Staff to the governor. He said that Abayomi, accompanied by some armed men, visited his home, with the aim of killing him. Majekodunmi however denied this.

While debunking the allegations, the governor's camp said Daniel is a peace-loving man and as the chief security officer of the state, he will never engage in such act. They charged the legislators with employing blackmail and dancing to the tunes of the Abuja legislators. Abayomi, the man at the centre of the accusation however said the guns found in his car were licensed and claimed that the lawmakers had attempted to blackmail the governor into giving them N20 million each, so they could repay loans they obtained from banks

Abayomi also launched a counter accusation: "they had poisoned Daniel a few weeks ago, a reason he had to be flown abroad for treatment. I want to tell you that Daniel was poisoned a few weeks back and had to be secretly flown abroad for treatment. We thank God that their evil did not materialise. I don't know what Governor Daniel has done to them; he was poisoned by some of his aides, who had been bribed by some politicians in Abuja".

The governor's camp also accused the G15 of planning to impeach Daniel: "These people are working with some politicians, who want to run for governorship in 2011," said an aide of the governor. It responded that Daniel should not be blamed for the crisis in the state. Instead they accused former Minister of Mines and Power, Dr. Sharafadeen Ishola, of fuelling the crisis because of his gubernatorial ambition. Ishola is an Egba man. They also accused the Speaker of the House of Representatives Hon Dimeji Bankole, Speaker also an Egba man of fuelling the crisis because of his governorship ambition in 2011 and antics to ensure that power return to an Egba man in 2011.

Former Lagos State governor, Senator Bola Tinubu was also accused of sponsoring the G15 rebellion against the Daniel. But Egbetokun denied that the House was being sponsored by some politicians in either Lagos or Abuja. According to him,"there was no plan to oust Daniel. We did not change the Speaker in order to impeach Daniel. We are not initiating any impeachment proceeding against him. It is only those who have skeletons in their cupboard among the aides of Daniel that are fuelling the crisis".

He also declared that his colleagues are not averse to a peaceful resolution of the crisis, but he accused Daniel of instigating people of their constituencies to recall them. He said that the rallies organised by the governor, at which their recall was canvassed, were a waste of resources bound to fail.

So far, all attempts at resolving the crisis have proved abortive as the intervention of notable personalities and even the national leadership of PDP have failed to make the combatants shift ground. To further tighten the rope on the governor's neck, the House last month passed a resolution barring the state executive from taking the N50 billion bond being sourced by Daniel's government.

They accused the executive of attempt to put the state in perpetual debt. But this was denied by the government according to Samuel: "It is not true that Ogun State Government has no account. We have a five-year financial statement that we did publish and sent to the state House of assembly." He said that the state would use the bond's proceeds to provide basic infrastructure. "We have started building good roads and street lights, providing pipe borne water, building tourist attractions like Olumo Rock. We have started building airport and also intend to build deep sea port. These are capital intensive and long-term projects that require to be financed," he said.

But the crisis assumed a different dimension few days ago when a national daily, published a nude picture of Alausa indicating that he was taking a secret oath at a shrine in Ijebu Igbo, allegedly being administered by those sponsoring the lawmakers rebellion. A day after the picture was published; the embattled lawmaker launched a counter attack, although he admitted that the picture in the publication was real, but the oath he took when the picture was taken was an oath of allegiance to Daniel, and it was at the governor's insistence.

Alausa said he was not alone in the oath-taking ritual and declared that most government officials serving in Daniel's government were also forced to swear to a secret oath of loyalty. According to him, 80 per cent of members of the PDP in the state are spiritualists. "There is no council chairman that did not take the oath before the elections including other political appointees". Alausa said that Daniel decided to humiliate him due to desire to perform his oversight functions as the Chairman of the House Committee on Water Resources. "I am being hounded because of my support for Resolution 167 urging financial institutions not to lend money to Ogun State," he said

Alausa's assertion was also corroborated by another lawmaker, Hon Tokunbo Oshin, chairman of the House committee on information; He said that shortly after the house impeached Oseni, he was forced by the governor to swear to a blood oath of allegiance. He said that all members of the legislative House took an oath of allegiance to the governor.

Even, the Speaker who is the leader of the G15 admitted that he also took such oath at the governor's private residence in Sagamu, but said that he was not naked like Alausa .

"I took such oath right in the Governor's private residence in Sagamu in the presence of some former public office holders in the state even though I was not naked. The governor caused the photograph to be published because he is the owner of the paper. Let him publish other ones if he has them. The whole thing is unfortunate, messy and stinking which I know he would be regretting by now.

"Let him go ahead to publish more, but I know he does not have photographs of any one of us here. If he has my own, let him publish it anywhere and I can assure him I will go to court.." he said.

But Kayode Samuel, the state commissioner for information and orientation, faulted Alausa's claims as an after thought and contradictory. According to Samuel, a report earlier published in some papers on, Tuesday, June 30, said that "the oath was taken in a shrine in Ijebu Ode" shortly after the 2007 primaries. Same day, Agboola reportedly told another publication that the photograph was taken in Daniel's toilet and bathroom on May 15, 2008, the day Oseni was impeached.

According to him, a scrutiny of the House records shows that contrary to his claims that he was absent and never took part at Oseni's impeachment proceedings. Samuel said Alausa was indeed present at the May 15, 2008 sitting. "The question for discerning minds is why they have now vowed to destroy the man who ostensibly administered the oath on them," adding: "Interestingly, the G15 members had said at various fora and television interviews that they never took any secret oath."

He also said: "For the avoidance of doubt, Governor Gbenga Daniel has never and will never administer secret oath on anybody and will not get involved in any sordid acts that will bring our state into disrepute."

But the embattled lawmakers are launching a counter attack as they threatened to publish the photograph of the governor when he was taking blood oath.

Oshin,was disclosed that his group is in possession of photographs of the governor taking traditional oath naked. Oshin who said this while featuring on a television programme said the naked picture of Alausa, published by the newspaper last week was only a part of the full photograph, explaining that the other part had Daniel standing naked and taking the traditional oath with Alausa.

The lawmaker said the group had however restrained itself from making the photograph public because it did not want to put the state into disrepute by publishing the photographs of the governor naked. With the publication of Alausa's naked photograph, he said that the governor had foreclosed the possibility of resolving the dispute between him and the lawmakers amicably.

However, the governor has blamed the crisis in his state on the love of money and indiscipline on the part of some people in the state. Daniel who spoke on the political crisis while receiving President Umaru Yar'Adua in Abeokuta in old the president: "Unfortunately sir, unbridled love of money, a high level of indiscipline by our party men and women and the current desperation to capture power by any means by our neighbours have led to the current implosion which opposition clearly designed.

"The objective of the designers of this confusion is clearly to diminish in the eyes of the unsuspecting public (who are daily fed with lies from a section of the opposition media the ownership which is known) the great heights that our party has attained in terms of unprecedented development brought by our government, part of which is being witnessed today ( last Monday).

"I, therefore, wish to seize this opportunity to ask our party leadership to revisit the issue of party discipline with all the seriousness that it deserves as a prerequisite for peace, progress and development." Daniel added.