A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume, has said that the Department of State Services arrested and detained Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe on Friday over alleged gunrunning and for aiding the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra.
Abaribe’s lawyer, who briefed journalists in Abuja on Saturday, said the allegations were contained in a search warrant dated June 22, 2018, and produced by the operatives who raided the lawmaker’s home in Apo Legislative Quarters in Abuja.
Ume quoted the warrant as directing the operatives to “focus and search for arms and ammunition and any other incriminating document, while the alleged crime was aiding and supporting a proscribed body i.e. IPOB.”
He said the operation lasted six hours, between 5pm and 11:15pm on Friday.
Ume said, “Of all the 27 items seized and taken away, none could be all they wanted to see in terms of arms and ammunition or stored bags of ‘Ghana Must Go’ for sponsoring the said IPOB.
“Unfortunately two of the 27 items include the two handsets of two USA citizens found in the home. One of the laptops taken included that of an educationist containing examination questions slated to be set for students on June 25, 2018.
“All pleas for these questions to be copied were refused.”
Ume stated that the turn of events had become worrisome especially when the leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, was to appear in court in October 2017 but his house was raided earlier in September.
Abaribe, the surety to Nnamdi Kanu, is to appear in court on June 26, 2018.
