Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe, ‘arrested’ by DSS

.... Ohaneze Ndigbo, Igbo Bu Igbo react

The Department of State Security has arrested the lawmaker representing Abia-South Senatorial District, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe.

According to his Special Adviser, Mr. Nwokoma Okorie, Senator Abaribe was picked up on Friday morning at his barber’s shop in the Apo area of Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.

His colleague, Dino Melaye, and his party, PDP, confirmed the arrest to PREMIUM TIMES in separate interviews.

Sen. Enyinnaya Ababribe

Mr. Melaye said he received information that Mr. Abaribe was picked at from the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja where he reportedly went to attend a function.

The DSS could not be reached for confirmation but the outspoken Senator had been under the watchful eyes of the DSS since he stood surety for the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who has not been seen since the Nigerian Army invaded his family home at Umuahia, Abia State, last year.

It remains unclear why the lawmaker was arrested. But Mr. Abaribe has been especially critical of President Muhammadu Buhari in recent times.

On June 7, he has asked Mr. Buhari to declare December 31 as Democracy Destruction Day to mark the coup he led to end Nigeria’s Second Republic in 1983.

Mr Abaribe made this contribution on the floor of the Senate while contributing to debate on the president’s declaration of June 12 as Nigeria’s Democracy Day.

On March 15, the lawmaker criticised the President for constantly denying responsibility when things go wrong.

The senator said Mr. Buhari is always in the habit of saying, “I don’t know.”

He made the comment while contributing to a motion on the recent killings in Kogi State by suspected herdsmen.

The lawmaker had earlier on April 12 thrown the upper chamber into a rowdy session when he lashed out at Mr. Buhari, describing him as ‘incompetent.’

Mr Abaribe had come under order 43 to discuss the issue of insecurity in Nigeria but his submission threw the chamber into chaos.

Operatives of the Department of State Security, DSS, who earlier on Friday picked up the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, have invaded his Apo residence in Abuja, just as Ohaneze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo cultural body called for his immediate release.

The DSS operatives who came in a Hilux bus with Abaribe were seen carrying out some search on his duplex abode.

Sources said the security operatives who came with a search warrant claimed they were looking for materials associated with the outlawed Independent People of Biafra, IPOB.

As at press time, the security agents were still holed up at the Senator’s residence with no formal information from the DSS as to why the Senator was picked up

Ohaneze Ndigbo Demands Abaribe’s Release as DSS Searches his Residence

Following the development, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has demanded for the immediate and unconditional release of Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe by the Department of State Service (DSS). In a release signed by the it’s President-General, Chief Nnia Nwodo and made available to THISDAY, Friday night, the organisation insisted that arresting the lawmaker based on his inability to produce the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu was totally out of place.

Reacting to the arrest, another Igbo socio-cultural group, Igbo Bu Igbo, has condemned “the continued indiscriminate arrest and persecution of political and business leaders of Igbo extraction by overzealous security agents”.

Sources close to the embattled senator alleged that the arrest was not unconnected with allegations that the presidency padded and distorted the budget which slashed allocations to key development projects including the building of Akanu-Ibiam International Airport Terminal in Enugu.

Abaribe led lawmakers of Igbo extraction to allege that the executive padded the 2018 budget with N30 billion after passage by the National Assembly.

Ohaneze Ndigbo said the circumstances prevailing at the time of the disappearance of Nnamdi Kanu were beyond the contemplation of the law that a surety can guarantee the production of an accused person.

“The army in the name of “Operation Python Dance” invaded Nnamdi’s home and destabilised normalcy there,” he said.

The organisation further noted that it was only the security agencies that could disclose Nnamdi’s whereabouts, adding that Abaribe had no capacity, nor had any surety in the circumstances to know the whereabouts of Nnamdi Kanu.

“What happened in Umahia was an invasion, a war of a kind.

“Nnamdi may have been killed or captured in the imbroglio or even escaped into hiding.

“The onus lies on the security forces to disclose his whereabouts.