One of top aides of Governor of Imo state, Rochas
Okorocha has been nabbed for illegal arms possession.
Here are the details
Imo State Police Command has arrested a Senior
Special Assistant to Governor Rochas Okorocha, Barrister Okechukwu Okorocha,
for illegally being in possession of arms.
In a meeting with journalists at the Police
headquarters in Owerri on Friday, the Police Public Relations Officer, Deputy
Superintendent of Police, Andrew Enwerem, said that Okorocha was arrested after
operatives from the State Criminal Investigation Department, acting on a
tip-off that some top government functionaries were stockpiling arms with the
intention to disrupt the general elections in Imo State, conducted a
cordon-and-search operation at his residence in the early hours of Friday and
recovered three pump action automatic rifles with 24 live cartridges and a
Kenwood walkie-talkie.
The police spokesman noted that Okorocha had
acted contrary to an instruction from the police to all residents, particularly
members of the State Vigilante Service, to surrender all the arms and other
dangerous weapons in their possession before the general elections.
“We have been announcing that the vigilante will
not be part of the security beef up at the polling centres during the
elections. As a result, we have been warning them to return the prohibited
firearms in their possession to Divisional Police Officers nearest to them,” Enwerem
said.
In a similar operation by the State CID in
Owerri, three automatic pump action rifles with 14 live cartridges were found
in the security post of Ebuada Housing Estate in the city. In the process of
recovering the weapons, Kelechi Onuoha, Chigozie Uzowuru, Osita Obiako and
Linus Aka were also arrested.
In all, six automatic pump action rifles and 38
live cartridges were recovered from all the suspects who failed to conform to
the directives of the police to surrender their arms.
“It is believed that these arms were going to be
used to disrupt the coming elections. The arrested suspects are currently in
the custody of the police and they are undergoing interrogation. This is what
we have done in preparation to ensure that there is a peaceful, credible, free
and fair elections in Imo State,” the PPRO said
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