Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) have arrested the Eze Igbo of Ajao Estate, Lagos, Fredrick Nwajagu, who vowed to invite members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to Lagos to secure properties of Igbo people in the state.
MAIDAWAAREWA learnt that the Igbo leader was picked on early Saturday in a joint operation by the DSS and the police.
It was gathered that the team had traced Nwajagu to his palace, but he fled.
He was said to have been tracked to a hotel in Ejigbo where he was apprehended.
Nwajagu, in a 49-second video, shared on Twitter on Friday by @DeeOneAyekooto, threatened to invite IPOB members to Lagos, justifying the move in the wake of attacks on some Igbo people in the state.
The Igbo leader said he stood by his words, insisting that his people must have a stand in Lagos.
“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,” he had said in the video.
Replying to the post, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, said the command would resist IPOB presence in the state.
“To start with, the ever-ready @LagosPoliceNG will never fold its arms and allow such within the state,” he wrote.
When our correspondent contacted the PPRO to know whether Nwajagu had been invited by the police in respect of his remarks, he said, “we will give further update at the right time.”
MAIDAWAAREWA reports that there has been a frosty relationship between Igbo and Yoruba ethnic groups in the state in the buildup to the 2023 general elections.
The situation degenerated after the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, defeated his counterpart, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the state in the presidential poll.
Igbo voters in the state complained of being intimidated during the March 18 governorship election and that many of them were prevented from exercising their franchise.
