A leader of Nigeria’s main opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was quizzed by the State Security Service (SSS) in the capital city of Abuja Tuesday, over alleged inciting comments against the President. A source close to the opposition party told PANA here Wednesday that Tinubu was invited to the headquarters of the secret police, but did not give details of what transpired there.
Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos state and one of the most influential politicians in the country’s South-west, has been throwing some verbal jabs at the President in recent times, as campaign hots up for April’s general elections.
After local media reported that Jonathan described the leaders of the South-west region as ‘rascals’, Tinubu fired back, describing the President as a ‘drunken fisherman sailor’.
At the launch of ACN’s presidential campaign in northern Dutse on Monday, Tinubu was also quoted as describing the president as a ‘fisherman whose boat is about to capsize’. This cannot be independently confirmed.
President Jonathan is of the riverine Ijaw stock, hence the continued use of the fisherman metaphor could be considered an insult.
ACN’s presidential candidate Nuhu Ribadu, the nation’s former anti-graft Czar, is considered one of the top candidates in the presidential race.