Renowned businessman, Jide Omokore, out of the blues

Sure you know this man of unassailable heights in the oil and gas industry and other related areas of the quantum money- spilling energy sector. Stinking rich and top industry player, Jide Omokore, you will recall was one of the few mentioned front men for the still-embattled former minister of petroleum, Diezani Alison-madueke. His name resonated so much then that he had to scamper into oblivion to avoid any possible beaming search on his relation- ship with the woman and probably his other businesses which he feared might be jeopardized if any further links with the former minister were established and probed. In the wake of these startling revelations of their complicity in the monumental sleaze by Madueke, many of her accomplices, including Omokare, quietly went underground, unlike before when they used to be the cynosure of all eyes at many functions and events to either socialize or seal up one business deal or the other. But that was then, enterprising and very businesslike Jide Omokore was spotted at the last Independent Newspaper Awards which held on Thursday at the Eko Hotels and Suites, brimming and exchanging banters with those he must have probably lost contact with during his forced hibernation. He must have felt a big sigh of relief since the heat is now off him and his cotravelers in the Alison Madueke saga.

It appears the long dream of this oil baron and philanthropist of note, Heyden boss, Dapo Abiodun to become the next governor of Ogun State in a few months to come, may just be crystallizing into reality, given what just transpired a few days ago, and this is stating the obvious. The former governor of Ogun State and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress ( APC), Chief Olusegun Osoba, recently presented the governorship candidate, Dapo Abiodun, to the party leaders and members in Ifo, Isheri, and Ilaro as the man to succeed Governor Ibikunle Amosun. Osoba told the party leaders and supporters of Abiodun that attended the ward-to-ward rally of the APC in Ifo Local Government that change is the only constant thing in life, and there is nothing that has a beginning without an end. Earlier in the day, Abiodun and his campaign team, led by APC Caretaker Chairman, Chief Sanusi, visited the palaces of Olu of Ilaro, Oba Kehinde Olugbenle; Olu of Ifo, Oba Samuel Oladipupo; Ajuwon of Ajuwon land, Oba Nurudeen Egunshola; and the Ilorin of Isheri, Oba Akanbi Adebowale. During the visit, the APC governorship candidate appreciated the mass turn out for his rally in the towns and assured the people and their monarchs of his readiness to drive the state out of economic woes that have prevented them from enjoying true dividend of democracy.