Ebonyi Gun-Running Legislator in Trouble

Eminent personalities from Oshiri in Ohaoazara council area of Ebonyi State are currently making frantic efforts to ensure that their kinsman and member of the state House of Assembly, Odefa Obasi Odefa, representing Onicha East Constituency in the state House of Assembly does not face the wrath of the law for being found in possession of two AK47 rifles. (Picture shows Chief Maartin Elechi, Ebonyi State Governor)

Odefa, who is Chairman, House committee on Works and Transport, was reportedly apprehended by operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) while practicing with the gun beside his car following a tip-off.

The Legislator who is also very close to the State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Engineer Dave Umahi, was upon discreet investigations by the SSS alleged to have procured a number of AK47 rifles preparatory to the council polls fixed for July 10, 2010 in the state.

A reliable source in the SSS said that almost all the big names in Oshiri have been bringing a lot of pressure to bear on the agency in a collective effort to ensure that their son was not made to “go under the weight of the law “for the grievous crime.

“What we intend to do is to hand him alongside the exhibits and photographic evidence to the police; we do not have power to prosecute but I think what the big men want is to see to the destruction of those incriminating evidence to save the neck of their son,” the SSS source declared.

Pressed for further clarifications, the source disclosed that though SSS has incontrovertible evidence that the legislator had more than 9 AK 47 rifles in his possession, he had been able to surrender just two rifles to the security agents, adding that Odefa was being trailed after information reached the agency that he was behind the stockpiling of dangerous weapons in readiness for council and other successive polls in the state.

However, PDP chairman in the state, Umahi, has been quoted lately as saying that only God can stop the re-election of the state Governor, Martin Elechi, for a second term in office. The 24-member State Assembly is made up of members of the PDP.
When contacted on phone, Hon. Odefa denied the allegations of gun running, saying his traducers had no proof of his investigation, either by the police or the SSS. The embattled law member said the whole saga was politically motivated.