I’ve Forgiven Those Behind Eight Years Siege On My Hotel – Gbenga Daniel

Former Governor Gbenga Daniel on Friday declared that he has forgiven everybody that had a hand in the shutting down of his multi – million naira five stars Conference Hotel located in a choice area of Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital, for eight years.

Daniel who was not interested in citing names, however, added that he believes the man behind the locking up of the hotel with the attendant negative effects had “regretted” his action.

Shortly after the administration of Senator Ibikunle Amosun was inaugurated on May 2011, the hotel facility was sealed up and remained locked till 12 midnight of May 28, 2019 when Amosun left office after eight years sojourn in Oke – Mosan Governor’s Office.

Also, armed and fierce looking policemen were stationed at the hotel entrance after they had chased the workers away, and while the siege on the facility lasted, burglars, allegedly, had field days, routinely looting the electrical fittings, electronics and other valuables even as they vandalised some of the window panes.

But fielding questions from reporters during tour of the Hotel ahead of its official opening to members of the public, the two time governor of Ogun State on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who returned to the hotel after the exit of Amosun’s administration, said he does not have difficulty with forgiving people.

“To forgive is divine. You know me, I don’t waste time to forgive and I guess everybody (connected with my hotel closure) has regretted it. The most important thing is that I’m alive. I took everything as the way God has planned it,” Daniel said.

He appealed to leaders and wealthy Nigerians to invest their money in the country in order to tackle the growing youth unemployment and poverty.

He said capital flight being carried out by Nigerians do the country and the citizens no good, stressing that if such funds stashed away in foreign lands such as Switzerland could be invested at home, it would definitely redeem thousands of jobless youths from the grip of poverty.

Daniel disclosed that the hotel initially engaged 300 hands who worked at the facility daily in the last six months, adding that he later recruited 200 additional staffers on permanent employment.

He noted that if one investment from a single individual could provide such number of jobs to the youth, it is then left to the imagination the quantum of Nigerians that would be empowered across the country if many of the nation’s wealthy individuals resolved to invest their monies in Nigeria instead of overseas.