For eight hours last Sunday, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, was held hostage at the Department of State Security Service (DSS) at the behest of some governors and some forces in the party to force him to resign.

Oshiomhole, however, stood his ground and rebuffed the pressure mounted on him to resign.

He told the DSS that he committed no crime and would therefore not resign, no matter the intimidation.

Although the APC chairman was caught unawares, he maintained his stand even when DSS officials tried to invoke the name of President Muhammadu Buhari.

He pointedly told them that the President was in the know of all that happened during the APC primaries and that it was their collective resolve not to allow imposition of candidates by anybody, no matter his status in the party.

It later turned out that some security operatives had plotted Oshiomhole’s resignation with about six APC governors.

The plot to lay ambush for him was hatched by the affected governors in connivance with some powerful forces who were aggrieved over the outcome of the recent primaries of the APC.

The governors are from Southwest, Northcentral, Southeast and Northwest.

Four of them are angry with the party for not allowing them to impose their favourites as the party’s candidates in their states.

A reliable source, who spoke in confidence, said: “Some of the governors behind the ambush had relocated to Abuja ahead of the invitation of Oshiomhole by the DSS. I

“In fact, one of them told a member of the Election Committee in his state to expect a major news on Sunday. He was quoted to have said ‘by Sunday, Oshiomhole is gone and all of you will be put to shame.’

“They opted for forcible removal of Oshiomhole to take advantage of the substitution window for candidates.

“The two options considered against Oshiomhole were either to get the DSS to arrest or invite him.

“Some of the governors actually felt that arresting him on spurious charges of fraud would make greater news and prevent Buhari from intervening like he did in the case with some judges.”

The second source said: “Last Saturday, a call was put to Oshiomhole by a DSS operative in Iyamho with an urgent tone that he should report at the DSS headquarters. But the APC chairman was not moved because he did not commit any crime.

“On Sunday, he returned to Abuja and honoured DSS invitation where he was told about a petition against him bothering on fraudulent activities.

“For about eight hours, it was a ding dong affair between the DSS interrogators and Oshiomhole over a demand for his resignation letter.

“Being an intelligent leader, Oshiomhole pointedly asked for a copy of the petition against him for his response, because he knew he did not engage in any fraud.

“No petition was presented to him. He rebuffed all attempts to force him to resign.

After being adamant for many hours, Oshiomhole was let off the hook by the DSS.

He insisted that he would not resign without hearing from the President and they could not provide any evidence that the President knew about their action.

On how he left DSS custody, the source said: “In fact, a governor of the APC came to pick him. There was no issue of surety at all.

“It was uncertain if the governor was just being benevolent or was one of the plotters.

A party source said: “He had already scheduled his personal trip. He was undaunted. He is not on exile. He has not committed any fraud.”

It was gathered the APC national chairman returned to the country yesterday.

•Excerpted from The Nation report

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