Judging from the look of things, all seems not to be well in the Southwest camp of the ruling All Progressives Congress at the moment. Old allies have now become new enemies, and one godson is now being used as an attack dog against another.

There are reports that members of the House of Representatives, led by its Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila has launched a probe of Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.

It was gathered that Gbajabiamila presided over plenary on Wednesday, where members insisted on probing interior minister and the Controller-General of Nigerian Correctional Service, Haliru Nababa.

Both men (Nababa and Aregbesola) are being accused of misappropriating the sum of N165 billion in prisons funds which were earmarked for the development of correctional facilities across the country.

In fact, the Reps made the move when the motion came up as a matter of ‘urgent public importance’ moved by the House Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu.

He said; “The House is disturbed that despite this Act and increase in budgetary allocations to the Nigerian Correctional Service to drive its renewed mandate, the tempo, and quality of the service have remained the same if not retrogressing.

The House is worried that the working conditions of staff and inmates’ welfare have deteriorated notwithstanding, the over N165 billion budget allocations to the service in the last two years,” Elumelu said.

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The Reps went on to mandate its committee on Reformatory Institutions to carry out a thorough investigation on the allegations and report back to the House in 12 weeks for further legislative action.

It is quite interesting to note that this probe is coming barely 72 hours after Aregbesola verbally attacked the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu at a stakeholders meeting in Ijebu Ijesha, Osun State.

The minister and his estranged godfather have been embroiled in a power tussle on who will emerge as the next governor of Osun state.

As it turned out, Tinubu has endorsed the second term bid of the incumbent, Gboyega Oyetola, a move that was rejected by Aregbesola and other party stalwarts in the state.

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They also accused the APC leader of betraying them when he imposed Oyetola on the party as his gubernatorial candidate back in 2018.

ALSO READ: Osun 2023: Can Aregbesola win the political war against Tinubu, others?

This, in turn, led to a standoff between the minister and the former Lagos governor, and both men have been at loggerheads ever since.

While many observers will laud the decision to probe Aregbesola on the alleged misappropriation of prisons fund, one cannot help but think that Gbajabiamilla and his colleagues are being used to witch hunt the interior minister.

After all, it is common knowledge that the Speaker and a large number of the lawmakers in the green and red chambers of the House of Assembly are staunch loyalists to the Jagaban of Borgu.

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But there are cogent questions we must ask in the face of this current Brouhaha; will the Southwest remain the same? Will Asiwaju retain his political hold on the region when this battle is over and the smoke clears?

In my opinion, I think the move to witch hunt Aregbesola is a bad one, especially at this point in time.

It will only end up confirming what has already been said about Asiwaju’s penchant for bringing down political progenies who attempt to break rank and chart a course for themselves. This, in turn, may lead to more bad blood among his ambitious followers.

With Tinubu’s camp fighting so many people within its fold at the same time, I do not see how the Southwest APC will come out of this one unscathed. A house divided against itself cannot stand for too long.