Abia tension DSS storms Hon ubani's premices

A combined team of soldiers and officials of
the Department of State Services (DSS) have
invaded the home of a former House of
Representatives member, Hon Eziuche Ubani,
in search of an alleged stockpile of arms.
Hon Eziuche Ubani’s home was invaded by a
combined team of soldiers and men of the
DSS.
Speaking with journalists at his Ovom
residence in Obingwa local government area,
Ubani, a former editor of This Day newspaper
who is the current Abia state commissioner
for works, said the security officials who
came in six Hilux vans, rudely woke him up
at about 2am when they smashed their way
into his home and turned every thing upside
down.
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“No one was spared; no one was respected.
Even my wife’s vanity box was ransacked,”
he said.
This Day reports that the invading team had
brandished a search warrant and told him
that they had information that he was
stockpiling arms and training youths to
assassinate leaders of the All Progressives
Grand Alliance (APGA).
Ubani said that after some of them had
scaled the high wall, broken the gate and let
others into the compound, they proceeded
into the house and smashed the door of the
boys quarters, beat up his drivers and
ordered them to where he was sleeping.
The legislator who represented Osisioma,
Obingwwa, Ugwunagbo federal constituency
in the House of Representatives between
2007 and 2015, stated that the security team
ransacked every room in his house.
When journalists visited the former
lawmaker’s home, beds were still turned
upside down, piles of cloths littered the floor,
books in his study were scattered around,
while several cartons of wheel chairs he had
procured for distribution to disabled persons
were slashed.
Ubani said he was glad that at the end of
search, the security operatives found nothing
and wrote it down on a paper and signed
that nothing incriminating was found in his
home.
He said it was apparent that the security
men acted on a spurious allegation made by
some members of APGA.
According to Ubani, Ahamdi Nweke, who was
the party’s senatorial candidate for Abia
central, had called him on the phone last
Sunday and accused him of conspiring to
send assassins to eliminate him, and
threatened to deal with him.
“I’m not fighting anybody,” he said, adding
that if the DSS had received any petition
against him they should have invited him to
their office to make a statement before
coming to search his house, if necessary.
The Abia state government in reaction to the
incident has condemned the invasion of
Ubani’s residence saying it was “unwarranted
and unacceptable”.
The commissioner for information and
strategy, Bonnie Iwuoha, expressed the
government’s displeasure at the incident
while addressing journalists at Ubani’s
residence.
He said the government demands an
explanation and an unreserved apology from
the security agencies concerned, adding that
such things should not happen in a peaceful
society.
Iwuoha described Ubani as a peace loving
man and hence the government “feels
concerned and embarrassed that this sort of
thing is happening to an official of the state
government.”
The commissioner used the forum to call on
those funding disturbances in the state to
stop forthwith as government would not
condone the violence in any guise.
Information gathered suggests that there has
been turbulence raging since the Court of
Appeal nullified the election of the state
governor, Dr Okezie Ikeazu of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) and declared Mr Alex
Otti of the APGA the rightful winner of the
April governorship election.
Sources say the tension has been
experienced largely in the Aba-Ngwa axis of
the state. Witnesses claim that since the
court’s pronouncement protests have rocked
Aba, the state’s centre for commerce, and
some of the protests reportedly became
violent.
Dr Alex Otti, the recently declared governor-
elect, has condemned the violence that
greeted the court’s announcement in Aba.
Otti alleged that the violence was the
handiwork of supporters of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) .
Meanwhile, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has
warned against an alleged plot to swear in
Otti as the new governor on Monday, January
4, based on the appeal court’s verdict.
Ikpeazu warned that any attempt to swear
Otti in would be at best looked at as an
illegal exercise within the state, and one that
will be treated as such.