The ugly news circulating in the social media since Tuesday, June 21^st 2016 and published in some national dailies today about General Azubuike Ihejirika’s arrest by the DSS are nothing but stupid lies by criminals who thrive on falsehood and deceit, paid by their masters and devilish detractors.

Their aim is to incite the innocent youths to start protesting against the government, for no just cause, and later blame it on the General who will never associate with such acts of violence. Their criminal intentions are all well known and the youths they are inciting have been told the home truth.

Honest, well known and high calibre individuals like General Ihejirika are not arrested, but are invited if they are needed by any agency of government in the course of an investigation. Arrests are made when the individual fails to honour such an investigation or call.

It may be foolhardy to assume that in a situation where the Federal Government is looking into the past activities of the Armed Forces of this country, General Ihejirika would not have been invited at one time or the other to give some clarifications or answer one or two questions that may have arisen. Those invitations were not considered to be arrests. It only makes headline news or lead to arrest when such individual fails to make him or herself available or is invicted.

Let it be known to everyone that General Ihejirika as a law abiding Nigerian who served this country to the best of his ability at the highest level of his chosen profession, the Nigerian Army, is not afraid of arrest by any Federal agency in their effort to establish the truth of what may have transpired or gone wrong while he served this country as Chief of Army Staff. He will respond to any enquiry or invitation in this regard.

Any person or persons who decides to disrupt the much needed peace and public order because Government agency, at any time, invites or arrests Gen Ihejirika or any other Igbo leader for that matter in the course of carrying out their lawful duties, will have themselves to blame. The General has not solicited nor will ever incite violence to clear his name if need be.

No one is above the laws of this country or cannot be arrested if found necessary. The people of the social media are warned to verify the source and authenticity of the information that may get to them before publication. The criminal elements amongst them who are paid by political opponents should be fished out and punished to deter others. Such bad ones lay credence or justify the attempt by the National Assembly to check them.

•Dave Agwalla writes from Abuja. He can be reached via danesworth.il@gmail.com. Photo shows retired Gen. Ihejirika.

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