Assembly Fire: We’re under pressure to implicate Fubara’s CoS, say acquitted persons

Four persons who were previously detained in connection with the fire incident at the Rivers State House of Assembly have raised fresh allegations, claiming they are being pressured to alter their original statements to implicate Edison Ehie, the Chief of Staff to the suspended Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara.

They are Chime Ezebalike, Kenneth Kpasa, Oladele Lukman, and MacPherson Olumini who were in November last year acquitted of the charges after about six months in Kuje Correctional Facility. At a press briefing in Port Harcourt on Monday, Ezebalike said they were recently contacted by a prominent PDP leader in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area to revise their narrative.

Three of the four acquitted suspects consented to appear on camera during the press briefing. According to them, the request was linked to a wider political scheme, allegedly aimed at corroborating claims made in a press briefing by former Head of Service, George Nwaeke, in Abuja. “We were asked to rewrite our story and falsely name Edison Ehie as the mastermind of the Assembly fire. This is after everything we have been through. We cannot be part of any nefarious plot, especially not after the trauma we endured,” he said.

They said the crime for which they were framed and now want them to rope Edison include the Assembly fire, the gruesome murder of Bako Angbashim, a DPO in the Ahaoda Area, and an alleged assassination attempt on the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Martins Amaewhule.