In order to gather more evidence, heavily armed police officers and Department of State Service (DSS) officials are said to have stormed the home of the arrested Eze Ndigbo of Ajao Estate, Frederick Nwajagu, for the second time.
WITHIN NIGERIA reports that Nwajagu was arrested on Saturday morning by the DSS and Police following the release of a 49-second video on Twitter in which he threatened to invite members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to secure properties of Igbo people in Lagos State.
Nwajagu was apprehended at a hotel in Ejigbo after a midnight raid by Police and DSS operatives who arrived at his palace in Ajao Estate but did not find him.
The Igbo leader had been taken to the State Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Panti, Yaba, by security operatives.
According to Vanguard, the DSS and heavily armed policemen returned to his residence on Monday with two white pickup Hilux vans to search.
Before returning to SCIID, Panti, conducted extensive searches that lasted over four hours.
According to eyewitnesses, Nwajagu led the police officers and DSS officials into his palace while handcuffed. It was discovered that the security guards left his palace with no visible evidence of wrongdoing.
IPOB
According to police sources, Nwajagu was arrested after his statement that members of the IPOB would be invited to Lagos if the destruction of his kinsmen’s properties continued.
According to reports, security agencies and top government officials in Abuja and Lagos State were alarmed by Nwajagu’s public statement and the subsequent response as it trended online, prompting the directive that he be arrested and investigated.
According to one of the sources, plans to fly him to Abuja or take him straight to court after a thorough search of his palace were hurriedly changed.
He stated that this was due to detectives’ inability to find any incriminating evidence in his home on Monday.
We have plans of even rounding up all the members of his cabinet in Ajoa Estate and anybody remotely or otherwise, connected with the volatile and provocative statement he made, but it will depend on the outcome of our subsequent investigation, the source said.
According to sources, investigations would continue while he remains in detention at the SCIID, Panti, Yaba, Lagos to ascertain whether his threat was real, deeply founded, or a fluke, especially when the Federal Government had proscribed IPOB while they continue to operate in the South-East.
72 hours in custody
Dr. Gerald Abonyi, speaking on behalf of Nwajagu lawyers, said they had sent a strongly worded appeal to Lagos State Commissioner of Police Idowu Owohunwa for his release on administrative bail.
He stated that his client had cooperated fully with the police and should be granted bail after spending more than 72 hours in custody.
Discussion about this post