Nigerian Concord Newspaper
The embattled deputy speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly, Mrs Lami Danladi Ogenyi has been accused of acts that tend to threaten the security and safety of the people in Ado Local Government area of the State.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH how women, men and youths solidarize with Mr. Oche Sunday during the visit of the IGP Team
Investigation by this newspaper showed that the embattled deputy speaker apart from raising a militia to foment troubles in Ado local government, has also raised some thugs who act as social media influencers to twist the report of the IGP Special Team on the security situation in the local government.
Two of the thugs who pretend to be working as social media influencers with an aim to mislead the public with a false narrative are Adai Unogwu Samson
and Alidu Mike Magaji.
Investigation showed that the duo of Unogwu and Magaji were the ones helping Mrs Lami Danladi and her associate, Nkechi Okafor to collect frequent donations from elders of Ezza for the procurement of arms and ammunition which they had used to fight the people of Effium for years before the current chairman of the local government, Mr. Oche Sunday Oche assumed duties and stopped the age-long war between both communities.
It was gathered that the deputy speaker recently gave Unogwu and Magaji N2 million to discredit the findings of the Special Team of the IGP led by CSP Mannase Orhena, the O/C Crimes of the AIG Zone 4 in Makurdi.
Meanwhile, Benue Intelligence Watch, an independent security group has condemned the deputy speaker over a statement credited to her in the media this afternoon where she maintained that there is still an illegal detention cell in Obioye after the IGP Special Team led by CSP Manase Orhena who led the team from the AIG Office in Zone 4 Makurdi went to investigate her petition to the IGP’s office and reported that there was no such cell in the area.
Benue Intelligence Watch which spoke through its National Secretary, Barrister Jude Okechukwu in a brief telephone interview with one of our reporters asked the Benue State government to ask the deputy speaker what she is looking for again by making false allegations against Mr. Oche Sunday after the IGP Special Team had said on Sunday that the petition which they came to investigate lacked merit.
“Perhaps Mrs Danladi is the one operating a secret detention cell which nobody knows about because if not, she wouldn’t still go to the media today to say contrary to the findings of the investigating team of the IGP led by CSP Mannase Orhena.
“At this point, we have resolved to petition the IGP, the Benue State House of Assembly as well as the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions so they can ask Rt. Hon. Lami Danladi Ogenyi to take them to where she is operating an unknown detention cell which she claims is existing in Ado Local Government despite a report from the IGP’s team that such doesn’t exist” Benue Intelligence Watch told Nigerian Concord Newspaper.
Recall that the IGP, Mr. Kayode Egbetokun on Monday asked that the Office of the AIG in Zone 4 should immediately release three traditional chiefs who were arrested during the investigation of a petition by the deputy speaker that they, in connection with the local government chairman operated an ilegal detention cell where they used to keep abducted victims.
The IGP who expressed his anger over how politicians are using frivolous petitions to disturb the activities of the Police Force asked that the detained chiefs be released after his team led by CSP Mannase Orhena had briefed him that residents of the areas whom they interviewed during their field investigation stated categorically that there has never been a cell where kidnapped victims were being kept.
During the visit of the IGP Special Team to Ado Local Government on Sunday, the O/C Crime of the AIG office in Zone 4, CSP Mannase Orhena who led the team from Abuja was told by residents of the community that there was no illegal detention cell in any part of Obioye area of the local government.
The IGP Special Team was told by residents that the place where the petitioners claimed to be an illegal detention cell contains an open market square and a Catholic Church where people are buying, selling and worshipping without fears.
The people of Obioye who spoke with this newspaper after the IGP Special Team left the scene on Sunday stated that both Ezza and Effium had been at war for over seven years, adding that Nkechi Okafor who used to be their president-general was always collecting money from them to procure arms and ammunition to fight the other community. “Nkechi, at a point went and built a mansion in Abuja and started living as a big woman. It’s on record that she has been sharing these funds with the deputy speaker” they noted.
They pressed further that: “But now that the current chairman, Sunday Oche, has come, he has been able to return peace to both communities and as a result of that, our elders no longer donate money for Nkechi Okafor to get them arms and ammunition. She at some points threatened them but the elders said no, that they weren’t ready to go into another war again, and this angered her.
“They even told her that the local government chairman with the supports of Governor Hyacinth Alia had returned peace and also that they had returned back from the IDPs in Igumale to their ancestral homes so they didn’t want her help them on arms and ammunition again. This actually stopped her and Lami Danladi from getting money from the community to share as they used to do, and this angered the deputy speaker who vowed to remove the chairman at all cost.
“According to our elders in Ezza community, Nkechi Okafor had led them into many wars with Effium just because she wanted to be collecting huge millions of Naira from them under the guise of helping them to procure arms and ammunition but they have stopped the donations since the current chairman had returned peace back to the two warring communities”
All efforts to reach Hon. Oche Sunday on his mobile lines proved abortive as his phone wasn’t reachable as at the time of filing this report.