DSS arrests Igbo leader who threatened to invite IPOB to Lagos

The Eze Igbo of Ajao Estate in Lagos State, Fredrick Nwajagu, has been arrested hours after threatening to invite members of the proscribed group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to the state.

The Punch reported that a source in the Nigeria police anonymously confirmed to it that a joint team of policemen and operatives of the Department of States Security (DSS) arrested the Igbo leader on the morning of Saturday, April 1, 2023.

“A team of police and DSS went to his palace but he had already fled. He was later traced to a hotel in Ejigbo where he was arrested,” the source said.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, has also confirmed that Nwajagu was arrested during a midnight raid.

He said: “The operation was carried out at midnight. The security operatives didn’t meet him in his palace. But we found out through intelligence gathering that he had lodged in a hotel in Ejigbo.

“He was traced to the location and arrested around 1 am.

"He is currently in the DSS custody where he is being investigated.”

This is coming barely 24h hours after Nwajagu was captured in a video threatening to invite IPOB members to Lagos to provide security for Igbo people in the state.

According to the Igbo leader, the move has become necessary due to recent attacks on properties and lives of people of South-East extraction during the general elections in the state.

The clip shared on the timeline of a Twitter user, @DeeOneAyekooto, also showed the Igbo leader insisting that his people have legitimately earned the right to stay in Lagos State.

Nwajagu said “IPOB, we will invite them. They have no job. All of the IPOB will protect all of our shops. And we have to pay them. We have to mobilise for that. We have to do that. We must have our own security so that they will stop attacking us in the midnight, in the morning, in the afternoon.

“When they discover that we have our own security, before they will come, they will know that we have our own men there. I am not saying a single word to be hidden. I am not hiding my words, let my words go viral. Igbo must get their right and get stand in Lagos State.”