DSS grilling of Oshiomhole: Signal of fresh danger for Tinubu

The purported interrogation of the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, by the Department of State Security (DSS), could be degenerating a seeming danger signal for the APC national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who sponsored Oshiomhole’s emergence as APC leader. Oshiomhole’s encounter with the security service began in less than one week Tinubu visited President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja, in the company of the APC national chairman.

In an earlier report, National Daily had indicated that Tinubu at the Wednesday closed-door meeting begged Buhari for Oshiomhole over the ravaging conflicts in the APC, as gathered from an internal Presidency source. The report was followed with another report which indicated that Tinubu’s rift with Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State divides South West. This was predicated on the seeming counter visit to president Buhari at the State House, Abuja, by Amosun, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State and Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State on Sunday preceding the Wednesday visits by Tinubu and Oshiomhole.

In the visits, both Tinubu and Amosun assured the Prescient that they would deliver the south west votes to the ruling APC in the 2019 general elections.

Amosun had during the reign of former APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, dominated political activities in the south west which threatened Tinubu’s dynasty. The power pendulum began to turn with the ascension of Oshiomhole as APC national chairman; Tinubu began to bounce back beyond borders.

The APC national leader was perceived to have recovered Osun State, allegedly imposing a governor even against the wish of the incumbent Governor Rauf Aregbesola. He maintained his hegemony of Lagos State; frustrated incumbent Governor Akinwumi Ambode of Lagos State from second term, even in defiance of President Buhari’s intervention and appeals. Ogun State was the next target where the APC national leader aligned with the national chairman to frustrate Governor Amosun and the APC leadership in the State from sponsoring a governorship candidate of the Yewa clime and imposing a candidate from Ijebu nation in defiance of the power rotation scheme in the state.

Amosun declined to give up on the battle for the soul of Ogun; he intensified political diplomacy in the Presidency towards adopting alternative power structure in the warfare with Tinubu.

More so, Oshiomhole is believed to have further entrap himself in an ineluctable power conflict. Many APC stakeholders were suspicious that Oshiomhole handled the APC primary elections in subtle ways to uproot the vestiges of other legacy political parties that formed the APC coalition and implant ACN members to entrench ACN hegemony of the party in the long run.

Apparently, the power configurations in the APC tend to reflect seeming Cold War between Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) led by President Buhari; and ACN led by Tinubu; as well as the power tussle in the south west between Tinubu and Amosun.

Amosun has been an earlier political ally with president Buhari before the APC amalgamation. Both political leaders have been in the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) before the formation of the CPC, a time Amosun joined the Action Congress (AC), which metamorphosed into ACN. The Ogun Governor is widely believed to have got more attention from President Buhari than Tinubu.

Accordingly, that the DSS resolved to interrogate APC national chairman, Oshiomhole, raises apprehension over perceived danger signal for the APC national leader to who dealing with Oshiomhole may encounter serious setback in the ruling party.

However, Governor Amosun on Thursday, dissociated himself from the Oshiomhole’s travail with the DSS.

National Daily gathered that in an interaction with State House Correspondents after a closed-door meeting with President Buhari on Thursday, Amosun remarked that he is not a security person and thus cannot influence the DSS to investigate the embattled Oshiomhole.

Amosun was cited to have declared: “I think you are giving me an oversight role.

“I am not a security person; so, clearly, that question will probably not be for me.

“I don’t hide under a finger and fight; if there is need for me to put my views across, you know by now, I will do it.”

There is emerging phobia that permitting DSS to interrogate APC national chairman presupposes approval by the President; which implies a seeming broken chord in the ruling party.

Oshiomhole was said to have been interrogated and briefly detained by DSS on November 4, 2018, but APC denies knowledge of such detention.