The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has said his recent meeting with the Department of State Services, DSS, was a mere routine conversation that held in the interest of national security.
He made this claim on Sunday while appearing on Channels TV’s political programme, Sunday Politics, anchored by Seun Okinbaloye and monitored by DAILY POST in Abuja.
Several media outlets had reported that the APC national chairman was grilled by the DSS over alleged bribe-taking and gross misconduct during the ruling party’s recent primaries.
Dismissing the reports as false, Oshiomhole said: “I met with the DSS on Sunday at about 3pm and I drove there on my own.
“I have been having meeting with the DG of SSS, both the current one and the previous one. It is not unusual that they want to find out what is going on.
“We share with them what we know and, sometimes, they share with us what they hear. I believe it is in the interest of the national security.
“We (have) met a couple of times to discuss issues that have to do with the country and our party.”
On his reported coercion by the DSS for him to resign as the APC national chairman, Oshiomhole said: “I wasn’t hired by the DSS and I cannot be requested by the DSS to resign or to retain the job.
“APC is a structured. We have organs. I know the processes and procedures. I believe the DSS also understand their own role in the system.
“It is not up to them to the demand the resignation of a party chairman. But, I believe it is their right to have a conversation with anybody who in their opinion can assist them in discharging their mandate of ensuring that Nigeria is safe and secure, particularly as we move towards 2019.”
On his meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari after his reported grilling by the DSS, he said: “The President is the President of Nigeria. He is elected on the platform of our party of which I am privileged currently to be the chairman.
“I visit the Villa two or three times a week. I have the duty to brief Mr. President on what we are doing in the party. We also have the privilege of learning from the President what the govt is doing as it relates to what the party expects of the government elected on our platform.
“So, meeting the president is not news at all. These are my privileges. I think it will continue to be so as long as the President is gracious enough to give me those privileges and also to hear my own suggestions on variety of issues as they relate to and affect governance, our party, and our country.”
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