DSS Warned Uzodinma, Police, Three Times Before Attacks On Imo Occured – Ex-Director

A former Assistant Director with the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, has disclosed how the secret police warned the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma multiple times about pending attacks in the state.

Amachree added that the DSS also alerted the Police in the state about the pending attacks but both the Governor and the Police failed to act on the intelligence information until the attacks were carried out on Monday.

The former DSS Assistant Director made this known on Thursday when he featured on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme.

He disclosed that the DSS had passed actionable intelligence to the police on the possibility of the attacks but the warning was discarded by the Police authorities in the state.

Naija News recalls gunmen on Monday, attacked the Owerri Correctional Centre and freed over 1,800 prisoners. They also razed the Imo State Police Command headquarters situated in Owerri and burnt all the vehicles parked in the compound.

Speaking on the attack, Amachree 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.”

Amachree added that the Governor is very much aware of the warnings too as such information is usually shared with him even before other security agencies.

He lambasted the Governor and the Police, saying some people are too lazy to do their jobs.

“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.

“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 (Indigenous People of Biafra).”

“Some people are just too lazy to do their jobs,” Amachree lamented.

On earlier claims by the now-former Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu who claimed that members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) are responsible for the attacks, the former spy chief said: “He (Adamu) doesn’t have his fact right because I don’t see how he can identify them. You identify people by either arresting some of them or from what they say but there was no person that was arrested.”

Meanwhile, unknown gunmen on Thursday morning have again attacked Mbieri Divisional Police Headquarters in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo state.

Naija News reports that the gunmen attacked the police station around 1 am on Thursday and freed suspects detained in custody in the police facility.

It was gathered that the gunmen failed to raze the police facility due to the resistance by the policemen on duty.