A former Assistant Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, said the agency informed the police and Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, three times, about an impending attack on the police command and prison facility, a week before the incident.
Amachree made the allegation while speaking on a television programme monitored in Lagos.
He said the police were informed about the attack one week and 72 hours before it happened, but that they were too lazy to prevent it.
“There is enough intelligence, enough actionable intelligence. Actionable in the sense that it allows for space for people to execute it. One week ahead of this particular event, of course, 72 hours before the event, and then, of course, 48 hours before the event.
“Three times the Nigeria police was informed by the DSS that this is going to happen. Some suspects that are being relocated around the area were found surveilling the prisons and the police headquarters. But, you know in our lackadaisical way, when the intelligence will come, they throw it by the side, and then, of course, when something happens, everybody runs around.
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),” the ex-DSS director said.
“I listened to the governor’s speech. He is correct in the sense that there is an investigation still going on; very sure, he is very aware of some of the root causes and the people that are involved because I know that the security agencies are feeding him with reports as they go along.”