Former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, on Friday, said he has forgiven everybody that had a hand in the shutting down of his five-star Conference Hotel, located at Okemosan, Abeokuta, for eight years.
Daniel, was making reference to his successor, Sen. Ibikunle Amosun, saying that he believed the man behind the locking up of the hotel had “regretted” his action.
Recall that Daniel’s Conference Hotel was sealed up immediately Amosun’s administration came on board in 2011. It remained sealed till May 2019.
The former Ogun state governor is still facing charges preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC over alleged fund misappropriation during his eight years tenure as governor of Ogun State.
While fielding questions from reporters during a tour of the hotel, 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.