Secret Reporters No place to hide
Secret Reporters
Over time, Nigeria has continued to experience Executive rascality and blatant disregard for the rule of law spearheaded by the Federal Government especially as it concerns the illegal detention of individuals often without a valid court order.
The Governor of Ebonyi State, Engr. Dave Umuahi is the latest new convert in this evil bandwagon of Governors who illegally detain individuals through the instrumentality of the Department of State Security (DSS) without recourse for the rule of law.
SecretReporters gathered that on Sunday 29 December 2019 Engr. Dave Umuahi ordered the illegal detention of the Founder of Economic Strategic Growth and Development Initiative of Africa (ESGADIA) Maazi Obinna Agommuo, by the Department of State Security (DSS), with trumped-up charges of fraud and corruption for simply presenting an account for a funding opportunity program being organized by the State government.
Findings showed that Obinna came to Ebonyi State on the invitation of the State Commissioner for Finance to meet the governor who is looking for interest-free loans for infrastructure in the state, which includes a proposed Airport.
This loan which is to be gotten from European Countries will be paid into a designated bank and monitored to ensure it is expended on the actual projects it’s meant for, which is one of the areas that Obinna and his team deals on.
A source who is in the know squealed to our reporter that “The Governor invited Mazi Obinna and two others for a meeting as they proposed a business. At the discussion, he asked for an account where they are to pay the money. We gathered that the governor was told to bring an undertaking from the bank which the State has business with, where the money will be paid and not touched but used to execute the project, which is the construction of an airport in the state”.
Poised on meeting the demands of the investors, it was gathered that the Governor immediately called his banker and directed them on what to do.
However, without understanding the nature of the money sought from abroad, the banker told Umahi that the transaction is a fraud as no foreign body requests for banker’s guarantor before granting such.
On hearing this from the bank, Umahi immediately ordered the DSS to take them into custody on 29th December ordering an investigation into the activities of the businessman and his team.
Despite findings by the DSS that they were clean, sources within the DSS squealed that they received strict instructions from Umahi to detain them indefinitely.
SecretReporters also gathered that the SSS Director in the state sought audience with the Governor to furnish him their findings but he has been evasive.
“They have requested they be charged to court but the Governor ordered the DSS not to take them to court and they’ve been in unlawful detention”, claimed a source.
The wife of the victim Mrs Favour Agommuo has accused the Governor of abusing executive powers lamenting that “The Governor unlawfully without the order of a court had since December 30th, 2019, asked that he be locked up over a misunderstanding that occurred between them. The secret service officers in the state acted on the orders of the Governor even when they have established that he committed no crime”.
Economic Strategic Growth and Development Initiative which was founded by Maazi Obinna Agummuo is an African wide economic development and industrialization advocacy body, chaired by the renowned Kenyan lawyer, Professor PLO Lumumba and having other prominent Africans both in America and the Caribbean as its partners.
Residents in the state who are knowledgeable in the scheme of things have opined that Engr Dave Umuahi is gradually carving out a niche for himself as a dictator in the state submitting that while they are yet to come to terms with the injustice he meted out on Hon. Maria Ude Nwachi for being elected from an opposition party amongst others, Maazi Obinna’s illegal detention may also be out of cheer Executive lawlessness.
