Obasanjo, Buhari planning interim government – Nigeria Police Minister

The Police Affairs Minister, Jelili Adesiyan, has alleged that former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the February election, Muhammadu Buhari, are plotting to install an interim government.

Mr. Adesiyan said Mr. Obasanjo has teamed up with Mr. Buhari, a leader of the APC and former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, and a former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, to snatch power from Mr. Jonathan at the centre, but said it would backfire.

The minister, who made the allegation during a book launch in Lagos on Monday, also said he had asked the Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba as well as the State Security Service, SSS, to arrest anybody who makes inflammatory statements ahead of the general elections.

The book titled “Watch the Watcher,” was written by a member of the Afenifere Renewal Group and former member of the 2014 National Conference, Yinka Odumakin.

The presidential election holds February 14.

“Obasanjo is already planning to install an interim government with Buhari. But we will vote and we will work with whoever wins the election,” the minister said.

The minister did not elaborate on the alleged plot by Messrs. Obasanjo and Buhari.

He said those making inflammatory comments are members of the opposition APC, and warned that he has asked the police IG and the SSS Director General to arrest those culpable.

“Many of those in the APC are disgruntled PDP members who are no longer relevant and because they could not have their way, they have started to heat up the polity. They have said they will form a parallel government if they lose,” Mr. Adesiyan said.

Mr. Adesiyan recalled a recent statement credited to the governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Amaechi, that the APC would form a parallel government if the elections were rigged, stating that the statement fuelled his suspicion that there was something in the offing.

On Mr. Obasanjo, the minister, who was detained in 2002 over the assassination of a former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Bola Ige, claimed that the former president was not only vindictive, but also fighting President Goodluck Jonathan because the president refused to be dictated to.

He said Mr. Obasanjo nominated Mr. Jonathan as deputy to the late President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2007 because he thought he thought he could control him (Jonathan).

“He picked a president that was sick and while we were campaigning for the president, he (Yar’Adua) was always in Germany receiving treatment,” Mr. Adesiyan said.

“While many were lobbying for the VP slot, Obasanjo picked a gentleman, Goodluck Jonathan, who had no strong political base so that he could control him. Unfortunately for Obasanjo, God had a better plan and Jonathan refused to be used,” he said.

The minister said out of frustration, the former president has now teamed up with APC leaders to snatch power from Mr. Jonathan, but warned that it would backfire.

“Obasanjo, being the man that he is, has now teamed up with Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar to snatch power but Tinubu will outsmart him because we Osun people are smart. Ask Tinubu, he is my brother, from my state. He is from Iragbiji while I am from Ode-Omu.”