The political strife in Ogun State was further compounded Monday night when the governorship candidate of the Action Congress (AC) during the 2007 elections, Otunba Dipo Dina, was killed by suspected assailants in Ota, Ogun State. Since 2002 when an aspirant of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Dele Orojo, was killed in similar circumstances, the trend of “political assassination” has assumed a new dimension in the Gateway state.
Prior to Dina’s gruesome murder on Monday, a number of deaths had been recorded during party programmes in some of the 20 local government areas of the state. In January 2008, two members of the PDP lost their lives at the party secretariat, Abeokuta. On October 16, 2009, a cousin to the former Commissioner for Agriculture in the cabinet of Otunba Gbenga Daniel, Hon. Waliu Taiwo, was killed shortly after attending a political meeting in Ota. Perpetrators of these two cases are yet to be uncovered.
On February 10, 2008, the erstwhile Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Wale Adedayo, escaped being killed by people he claimed to be “government agents.” He subsequently resigned from the cabinet. Taiwo had also claimed that he’d been threatened by a member of the state cabinet, a development that led to his unceremonious exit. The duo have since then been crying aloud that the government they served has “a killer squad”.
In fact, in a newspaper advertorial published in a national newspaper on the day Dina was killed, Taiwo had alleged that the lives of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) governorship candidate in the state, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, Dina and others, including himself, were being threatened by the powers that be in the state.
Even in the Action Congress, speculations were also rife that Dina may have been sacrificed to gain the electorate’s sympathy in the 2011 elections. Close associates of Dina had attested to this theory. However, whatever political theory and postulations regarding Dina’s killing were perhaps doused by the police, as the Command hinted that there was an element of robbery in it.
The man DD
Commonly referred to as DD by political admirers and associates, Dipo Dina was a politician, philanthropist, administrator, community leader and renowned Chartered Accountant. He was born on July 15, 1960 into the Dipo Alapo Ekun family of Iyanro, Ijebu Ode, Ogun State. He had his secondary education at the Baptist Academy, Lagos, before going on to the University of Lagos where he got his first degree in Accounting and later M.Sc in Finance.
A qualified Chartered Accountant since 1984, Otunba Dipo Dina was the Senior Partner at Dele Dina & Co. (an accounting firm). He was also the Chairman of various companies including Tripple Ace Energy Services, Marsvel Properties Limited and K2COM. He also sat on the board of the former EIB International Bank. He was a financial consultant to many companies, both at home and abroad.
Described as a man that had the blood of kindness running through his veins, Dina between 1997 and 1999 served as the chairman of Ogun State Bulk Purchase Commission where his salaries and allowances were donated to the School of the Handicapped, Ijebu Ode. He awarded bursaries to about 400 students in the state annually, and during his governorship campaign in 2007, about four million free exercise books were given to primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in the state. He founded the ‘Ogunnet’, a non-governmental organisation, to execute his political programmes.
His political sojourn
He joined the Alliance for Democracy (AD), which later became the Action Congress party (AC), and became its governorship candidate in the 2007 election after he ventured into active politics in 2003. He contested for the senatorial seat from Ogun East senatorial district but lost to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Tokunbo Ogunbanjo. Still determined to make his dream come true, in 2005, Dina declared his intention to contest in the state’s 2007 governorship race.
According to him, “There is no doubt that our people deserve a better deal than what is being offered them by the present government. If a state cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich, hence the need to have the fear of God and respect for human dignity at the helm of affairs.”
He went further to state: “Our word, which would be our bond, will be service delivery through inspirational leadership, purposeful governance, leadership by example and teamwork. Our target is to have good, responsible, responsive government etched on accountability and transparency. We have a very clear, precise, consistent and ambiguous vision for our state.”
With his Dipo Dina Campaign Movement, the late politician ensured that the ruling party was given a fight. The outcome of the election was challenged up to the Appeal Court tribunal, before it was finally thrown out. Dina was among the top contenders for the electoral mandate in the forthcoming 2011 elections. He wanted to fulfil his dream for a better state in Ogun. This was cut short on Monday, January 25 via a single shot in the left side of his abdomen.
Police preliminary findings
The new Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Musa Abdulsalam Daura, while reacting to the incident at the state headquarters, Eleweran, barely 15 hours after the incident, said Dina struggled with his assailants before he was shot. Musa who gave the police graphic details of the killing according to the investigation he said he’d personally conducted with two occupants of the vehicle in which Dina was travelling from Lagos to Badagry said that Dina told his assailants, “Since it is a struggle between me and you, it is purely robbery.”
But upon agitation by newsmen that such struggle could have ensued between an assailant and a victim, Daura retraced his position. “It depends on the situation. There is an element of robbery and there is an element of assassination.”
He narrated that at about 22.30 hours, he got a message from the DPO in Ota saying that somebody had been killed in his domain. “I called the management team since I do not know the terrain. We drove straight to the station. I interviewed one Funmi and the driver individually, not collectively. They said that hoodlums told them to come down and they did. They then said that the hoodlums asked them to go to the back and it was at that point that the deceased started struggling with them and was shot on the left side of his abdomen,” he said.
Political upbraids
While the police have since commenced full-scale investigations into the death with the deployment of two Deputy Inspector Generals (DIGs) from Abuja, the political situation has been upbraided on the development. Both members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and those in the opposition parties are now jittery following the killing.
A cross-section of politicians and associates who spoke with our correspondent expressed fear and concern over the killing, lamenting that the political terrain in the state, particularly ahead of the 2011 elections, has become a matter for second thoughts. The former Deputy Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Tokunbo Oshin, said that the death of Dina would no doubt affect the psyche of the political class in the state. “In fact, I have received not less than 100 messages appealing to me in particular and the rest of the G-15 in the House to tread softly,” Oshin, a top PDP member, said.
The Secretary of Action Congress (AC) in the state, Alhaji Abimbola Awofeso, said that the political field will no longer be the same, as more vibrant and resourceful citizens will now have to think twice before coming on board. “It happened to Arojo barely months before the 2003 elections, now it has happened to Dina. It is terrible and a shame to Ogun State. This is not what the likes of Pa Awolowo and Otegbeye left for us,” Awofeso berated.
The state governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Adegbenro Adebanjo, said that, “I am saddened by the reprehensible and ungodly act. It is a condemnable act and those responsible must be speedily brought to justice by security agencies.
“This is one case that the police must do all that is possible to crack. On behalf of the government and people of Ogun State, I commiserate with the family and friends of Otunba Dipo Dina and pray that God will give them the fortitude to bear this irreparable loss.”
The late Otunba Dipo Dina would have been 50 years old in July 2010 if he had lived.
