A former Director at the Department of State Services, Dennis Amachree has disclosed that the Nigeria Police Force ignored warnings given by the secret police on three different occasions about the attack on the Owerri Correctional Centre and the State Police headquarters.
Amachree disclosed this in an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday.
The former DSS Director said the attack could have been averted if the police had acted earlier.
“There was enough intelligence, enough actionable intelligence. Actionable in the sense that it allows for space for people to execute it; one week ahead of the event and of course 72 hours before the event and then 48 hours before the event.
“So, three times, the Nigeria Police Force was informed by the DSS that this is going to happen because some suspects that are being geolocated around the area were found surveilling the prisons and the police headquarters but you know in our lackadaisical way, when the intelligence came, they threw it by the side and when something happens, everybody runs around,” Amachree said.
After the Monday incident, two other police stations have been attacked again by gunmen.
Governor Hope Uzodinma has blamed the attacks on aggrieved politicians who aim to destabilise his government and that of President Muhammadu Buhari.