A former Assistant Director with the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree has said that the Police and Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma were alerted at least three times about the attacks by gunmen on the state police headquarters and the Owerri Correctional Centre before it happened.
Amachree, who revealed this while speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme, however said the police and the governor failed to act on the intelligence supplied by the DSS.
NaijaNewsNow reports that gunmen attacked the Imo State Police Command headquarters, burning vehicles parked in the premises and releasing suspects in the cells of the State Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department (SCIID). They also attacked the Owerri Correctional Centre, where 1,844 inmates were released.
The ex-DSS director said: “There was enough intelligence, enough actionable intelligence. Actionable in the sense that it allows for space for people to execute it; one week ahead of the event and of course 72 hours before the event and then 48 hours before the event.
“So, three times, the Nigeria Police Force was informed by the DSS that this is going to happen because some suspects that are being geolocated around the area were found surveilling the prisons and the police headquarters but you know in our lackadaisical way, when the intelligence came, they threw it by the side and when something happens, everybody runs around.
“All security reports are shared with the governor in a state first, then, it is shared with other sister agencies like the police, the military, if there is military installations there, all of them got this particular report. So, the governor is very much aware,” he said.
Continuing, Amachree said nothing was apparently done to stop the attacks.
“Apparently nothing was done (to forestall the attacks). You can see that the governor was referring to that particular report that it is not IPOB. Some people are just too lazy to do their jobs.”
