The power play among All Progressive Congress (APC) top shots again played out in the recent appointment of the acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris.
A top APC source told Frontiernews that APC national leader Senator Bola Tinubu lost out in the power play for the top police job due to fears in recent quarters that he would use it to his advantage ahead of the 2019 presidential and national assembly elections.
It was gathered that Aso Rock hawks wary of Mr. Tinubu’s political influence convinced President Buhari not to cede the top police job to Tinubu’s protégée, Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Tune Ogunshakin who was positioned by the APC national leader for the top police job.
Our correspondent’s investigations revealed that when former IGP Solomon Arase was ready to bow out as the police boss, the APC leader was said to have approached President Buhari to allow him present a candidate for the police top job which the president was alleged to have agreed to.
Our correspondent was however told that based on the understanding that his candidate would be given the job, Mr. Tinubu allegedly flew a first class oba from the south-west to London to see the president when he was on sick vacation, further write an undertaken for Ogunshakin for the top police job but was however shocked when the name of Idris was subsequently announced as the acting IGP.
A top politician who is close to both the APC leader and President Buhari told our correspondent, on condition of anonymity that the rejection of Tinubu’s candidate has further ruptured an already fragile relationship between him and the president.
According to the source ” the APC leader is very unhappy over the rejection of Ogunshakin after he was promised that the job will be given to the now retired AIG. What has made the matter worse for him is the fact that a first class oba was brought in to secure an undertaken for Ogunshakin. Despite the president’s reassurance, the job was not given to Tinubu’s candidate. The Yoruba people see it as an affront on them by the president and they are very unhappy about that”.
“The fear now is that Tinubu does not trust the president. There is also the fears that the president may soon begin to hunt APC leaders who are disloyal to him with security agents and Tinubu may not be left out. It is creating tension among his loyalists who are biting their fingers for voting for Buhari in the last election,” the source said.
Source: Frontiers News
