By Mike Etim, Uyo
The Akwa Ibom State command of the Department of State Service (DSS) has cleared the air over the recent attack on the home of Mr. Soni Udom, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain by suspected armed robbers purported to be assassins.
Briefing newsmen in Uyo yesterday, while parading five suspected armed robbery gang at the DSS headquarters, Uyo, the state Director’s of DSS Mr. Toma Minti denied the claims on some state Local and some National Media that the state government was sponsoring assassination and Political attacks on targeted key opponent in the state using Soni Udom as reference point.
Udom, the Campaign Director of the former Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Mr. Umana Okon Umana, who is a gubernatorial aspirant for the 2015 elections, home was ransacked in his absence by a five man gang robbers on the 6th May 2015.
In the resultant attack, one of the gunmen shot at his gang member over an argument cutting off his finger thumb, which was abandoned on the floor of the House, while the gang fled the scene after carting away household effects including handsets.
Udom, in the press conference after the incident, had alleged that the attack in his home was clearly an assassination attempt on his life.
“Why should anybody want to assassinate me?” Udom queried, saying “I have no shady business deals with anybody, or tampered with anybody’s life, or have any land dispute whatsoever”.
He said the gunmen who came under the guise of looking for a house to rent, did not go away with any valuables, as they later abandoned the phones they had seized.
However, the State Director, in his claims said that apart from robbing Udoms home, the gangs also attack the home of one Iniobong Otong and Itina Aniedi, carting away cash, handsets, a car key and other valuables belonging to the victim.
Minti who gave the names of the suspects as Israel Doolyor (a.k.a Igwe), Israel Istofanus, Aminu Madaki, Ibram Mohammed, and Orseer ramsey Pine said the much needed breakthrough to the arrest of the gang came when the leader of the gang Israel Doolyor was arrested in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, on May 14.
Consequently, the command therefore warned members of the public and especially the political class to refrain from acts and comments capable of heating up the polity as this may have a multiplier effect of impinging on the forthcoming political process leading to the 2015 general election.
