Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has debunked media reports that he was arrested and detained by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) over allegations of collecting bribe during his party’s primary elections.
Speaking during an interaction with editors in Lagos on Saturday, Oshiomhole said he “saw DSS only once and it was a conversation, not an arrest or detention”.
He said: “The conversation centred around APC primaries. The question now is whether or not it is the DSS job to interfere in a political party’s issues. And if there’s an allegation of corruption, it is the responsibility of EFCC and ICPC.”
The former governor of Edo noted that the DSS did not ask him to return the next day, contrary to media reports.
Oshiomhole said he was billed to travel abroad on Monday but postponed the trip for a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari. He said he eventually left the country on Tuesday.
Furthermore, the APC chairman said he was not released on administrative bail, adding that Yahaya Bello, governor of Kogi, did not come to pick him up from the DSS office.
He said: “I was the one who called Yahaya Bello and he came but I drove home in my own car.”
Oshiomhole lashed out at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for calling on Interpol to arrest him, and for insinuating that he had fled the country over the matter.
He said: “What would they have said if it was the PDP chairman that was invited by DSS, for instance over the dollar bazaar at their Port Harcourt primary?
“They would have said democracy is under threat and would have fired a letter to the UN as they often ridicule themselves.”
The former labour leader alleged that “a few important members of APC may be conniving with PDP because they preferred the impunity of the PDP era”.
Governors Rochas Okorocha of Imo and Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun are aggrieved over the APC primaries. They blame Oshiomhole for their inability to get the gubernatorial tickets of the party for their preferred candidates.
–additional reports by TheCable