{"id":237894,"date":"2025-12-04T07:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T07:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.name.ng\/news\/dont-clear-reno-omokri-as-ambassador-it-will-damage-national-security-apc-chieftain-tells-dss\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T07:01:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T07:01:00","slug":"dont-clear-reno-omokri-as-ambassador-it-will-damage-national-security-apc-chieftain-tells-dss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/dont-clear-reno-omokri-as-ambassador-it-will-damage-national-security-apc-chieftain-tells-dss\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cDon\u2019t clear Reno Omokri as ambassador, it will damage national security\u201d \u2013 APC chieftain tells DSS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\">An All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Denge Josef Onoh, has urged the Department of State Services (DSS) to withhold security clearance for Reno Omokri, warning that doing otherwise could undermine national security and complicate an ongoing treasonable felony prosecution.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, Onoh said clearing Omokri, currently undergoing DSS screening as an ambassadorial nominee, would create \u201cgrave and avoidable consequences\u201d for both the agency and the country.<\/p>\n<p>He argued that Omokri\u2019s past public allegations against President Bola <a href=\"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/tinubu\">Tinubu <\/a>far exceed those made by activist Omoyele Sowore, who is being prosecuted on charges that include treasonable felony for repeatedly labeling the President \u201ca criminal\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Onoh said Omokri went \u201csignificantly further\u201d between 2022 and 2024 when he repeatedly described the President as \u201ca drug baron\u201d and claimed to possess documentary evidence that he vowed to reveal in court.<\/p>\n<p>He said granting the former presidential aide security clearance would contradict the basis of the ongoing prosecution against Sowore and strengthen arguments of selective justice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClearing Omokri sends the message that calling the President a \u2018drug baron\u2019 is compatible with high diplomatic office, while someone who made a less detailed allegation is in court,\u201d Onoh said.<\/p>\n<p>He warned that such an outcome could damage the DSS\u2019 credibility and expose Nigeria to diplomatic embarrassment, adding that several foreign missions are already uneasy about Omokri\u2019s nomination.<\/p>\n<p>Citing Section 172 of the constitution, which requires ambassadors to be persons of proven integrity, Onoh said the clearance could lead to rejection of agr\u00e9ment by host countries and negative international press coverage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo clear him is to hand him a platform to claim vindication, collapse the treasonable felony case, and make Nigeria a laughing stock on the diplomatic stage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Denge Josef Onoh, has urged the Department of State Services (DSS) to withhold security clearance for Reno Omokri, warning that doing otherwise could undermine national security and complicate an ongoing treasonable felony prosecution. Speaking with journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, Onoh said clearing Omokri, currently undergoing DSS screening as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237894\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}