With President Bola Tinubu’s visit to Ogun State casting a long political shadow, Governor Dapo Abiodun is allegedly running a cash-for-signatures operation designed to torpedo former Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s Senate ambition before the race even begins.
Party executives and leaders in Ogun Central are being quietly mobilised to sign declarations of Amosun’s ineligibility for the senatorial ticket. The going rate, according to reliable insiders: ₦250,000 per operation, disbursed to foot soldiers and cooperative party faithful. Not all are cooperating. Several party leaders are reportedly resisting what they describe privately as a brazen, self-serving scheme.
The motive is not hard to decode. Abiodun allegedly told confidants that he would rather neither man reach the Senate than allow Amosun to return to formal political relevance. His reasoning is blunt: once he vacates Government House in 2027, his leverage over Amosun evaporates entirely. The governorship is his only remaining weapon, and he knows it.
To sustain the optics of a movement, Abiodun is said to be deploying a curated list of loyalists to front the anti-Amosun campaign, with crowds at mobilisation events reportedly assembled for pay, not conviction.
Amosun, who once dominated Ogun politics with near-total authority, has re-emerged as the central threat in Abiodun’s calculations. With Senator Gbenga Daniel facing similar pressure in the East, the warfare now spans all three senatorial districts.
Tinubu’s visit arrives at precisely the moment when the machinery of political suppression is most visibly in motion. The signatures are being collected. The money is flowing. And a governor running out of time is betting everything on a play that looks less like strategy and more like panic.