Dapo Abiodun’s Incompetent Mouthpiece Desperately Needs A Legal Brain Transplant – Ope Banwo
-An official response to Seyi Bakare, the legally illiterate media aide
By Dr. Ope Banwo
Ordinarily, I would have ignored your bile-filled tirade in response to my article about your boss, Governor Dapo Abiodun, over his illegal and vindictive attempts to demolish Senator Gbenga Daniel’s properties without due process. Frankly, I had never heard of you before, and your poorly written rejoinder struck me as a waste of my time and intellectual energy.
However, your personal attacks, coupled with your deliberate misrepresentation of my person, my credentials, and everything I stand for, finally convinced me—after much persuasion from my team—that you deserved a one-time, unfiltered response. Not for your sake, but because the internet never forgets, and silence can sometimes be mistaken for guilt or ignorance.
Besides, even the Scripture reminds us in Proverbs: “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.”
So here is my response to your sponsored piece published on https://justnews. ng/gbenga-daniel-defending-the-indefensible- by-seyi-bakare/?amp= just in case the readers of my article are what a communications neophyte like you masquerading as a Media Aide to a sitting governor said to me to provoke this so they can judge for themselves if you deserved this personal smack down (see, unlike your power drunk boss, I like to give fair hearing to all]
When I first saw the poorly written, condescending, and utterly confused piece titled “Gbenga Daniel: Defending the Indefensible” by one Seyi Bakare, I wasn’t upset. I was only embarrassed for him. I was also not surprised because Gov Dapo Abiodun, like every insecure dictator wannabe, has a reputation for surrounding himself with incompetent wannabes who are ready to jump even before the ‘J’ is out of his mouth in their ridiculous attempts to satisfy everyone of his unfortunate whims and caprices.
The moment I realized Dapo Abiodun’s barely educated media aide, Seyi Bakare, was trying to lecture me — a trained and practicing attorney on two continents — on legal doctrine, I knew I was dealing with a man who doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. But when I discovered he’s not just a random political attack dog, but a Media Aide to Governor Dapo Abiodun, it all made sense. The frothing, the bile, the misplaced aggression… classic symptoms of a man paid to bark, not to reason.
- Seyi Bakare: An Uneducated Media Aide Who Forgot the Ethics of His Job
- It’s no surprise that Mr. Bakare, in his hyper-defensive rant, abandoned both facts and decorum, since his job description seems to have mutated from “media aide” to “professional propaganda peddler.”
As someone who’s been around long enough to understand the unwritten rules of political communication, I am disappointed — though not shocked — that a supposed spokesperson for the Governor would descend to such disgraceful depths of ignorance and intellectual recklessness.
Even as a media aide, Bakare is still bound by the ethics of truth, professionalism, and logic — especially when engaging legal matters. But instead, he chose to pick a public fight on legal terrain with someone who actually understands the subject.
That’s like a man with a slingshot picking a fight with a trained sniper.
Here’s my free advice, Bakare: the next time you feel the urge to discuss burden of proof, presumption of regularity, or constitutional due process, do your homework first — or better yet, pick a fight with your mates, not with a seasoned, dual-qualified lawyer. Otherwise, you risk being publicly disrobed as you were in this embarrassing attempt to look smart.
- No, Mr. Bakare — The Burden of Proof Is Not on the Accused. Your legal logic is so dangerously flawed that it should come with a public health warning.
You quoted Section 131 of the Evidence Act and proudly cited Latin like a law student trying to impress during moot court, except you got the application of the principle completely backward. Let me educate you — slowly, so it sticks, since you are obviously very slow in the uptake:
- The Ogun State Government made an accusation: That Senator Gbenga Daniel built illegally.
- The State marked his property for demolition: That is not a “neutral” act; it is a punitive government action.
- Therefore, the burden of proof lies on the accuser — i.e., the State — to show why it is justified in demolishing those properties.
You don’t mark someone’s home for destruction and then start asking for papers afterward. That’s called administrative recklessness, not governance. Due process demands you inspect, serve notice, offer opportunity to be heard, and then act based on verified findings.
You clearly confused civil burden of proof with the government burden of justification under public administrative law. That’s like confusing paracetamol with plutonium. Both may sound important, but only one won’t kill you when misused.
*3. Your Misuse of the Portable Analogy Is Laughable
In your desperate attempt to sound insightful, you compared a sitting Senator and former Governor to… Portable, the Zazu crooner?
What a joke by a paid puppet journalist who cannot even research basic things before rushing to do the bidding of his out-of-control boss.
Portable is a private citizen whose permit issue was with new construction in 2023. OGD is a two-term Governor whose buildings were erected during his lawful tenure, with civil servants and agencies that operated under his own administration’s documented approvals. If you knew anything about the Presumption of Regularity (which courts apply to official acts of public officers), you’d know that the buildings must be presumed legal until the State proves otherwise.
That is established Nigerian administrative law, not hero worship.
But again, your analogy, Mr. Seyi Bakare, on behalf of your equally inept governor — like your article — crumbled under the weight of your ignorance.
*4. Retroactive Application of Law? You’re Helping My Case
You confidently quoted Section 72(3) of the Ogun State Physical Planning Law, which allows enforcement actions even for structures erected before the law came into effect.
Congratulations. You just made my case.
Yes, the government can serve notices under that provision. But it must still follow due process:
- Proper inspection,
- Opportunity to regularize,
- Transparent and fair application across the board.
What the Governor did was target one man — OGD — while ignoring similar properties in the same neighborhood, many of which are owned by political cronies. That’s not enforcement, that’s political persecution.
And your defense of this selective targeting only proves the point I made in my original article: this is a vendetta and misuse of government power to destabilize a perceived political opponent, not governance.
*5. When You Can’t Argue Law, You Attack Credentials
Your personal jabs at my titles and qualifications were a dead giveaway. When a man starts attacking another man’s résumé instead of his arguments, you know he’s already lost the debate.
You say I’m “pompously” loading myself with titles? Funny — all I did was state my qualifications, which are facts, not embellishments:
- Attorney admitted to the New York Bar.
- Barrister-at-law in Nigeria.
- Legal consultant with over 38 years of transnational experience in both public law and private rights. And that’s just stating a very small fraction of my resume, in case you didn’t even know.
SO, if you find those titles “offensive,” that’s not my problem. That’s your inferiority complex in full display. Let me ask you: How much education or qualifications did YOU GET before your governor probably plucked you from the streets, without any formal interview, to come and become his ‘Media boy-boy’ disguised as Media Aide? Reel them out and let’s see it!
*6. This Is Not About OGD. It’s About the Rule of Law
Let’s be clear: This is not about Gbenga Daniel being a saint. It’s about the weaponization of state power.
The issue here is process, not personalities. If the State wants to enforce laws, it must do so transparently, fairly, and legally. Not by bullying political opponents under the guise of planning laws.
You may not understand that, Seyi. But I do. And I will always speak up — not because I’m a fan of any individual, but because I fear what happens when government power is turned into a tool for vengeance.
My Final Word As the Mayor of Fadeyi:
Seyi Bakare, stay in your lane. You’re a media aide. Defend your boss by spinning facts, not by pretending to understand laws you clearly haven’t read.
Don’t bring a slingshot to a legal shootout. Next time you feel the urge to attack a constitutional lawyer on legal grounds, do yourself a favor: Google first. Or better yet — stay silent and be thought wise.
Otherwise, you’ll keep exposing yourself as a legally clueless attack dog barking at legal giants from the foot of the mountain of truth.
Dr. Ope Banwo, Attorney and founder of Naija Lives Matter, wrote from the USA
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