The Department of State Service (DSS) has denied an allegation that five of its personnel aided the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, to escape from his Umuahia home to Israel.

Kanu, leader of secessionist group, IPOB, had escaped from his Umuahia home during a raid on his residence on September 14, 2018.

The IPOB leader, however, resurfaced on social media claiming to be in Israel.

Leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Ralph Uwazuruike, however, alleged that DSS operatives aided Kanu's escape.

DSS spokesman, Peter Afunanya, in a statement on Monday, October 22, 2018, described Uwazuruike’s claim as mischievous.

“The Service wishes to state that the news is fake, mischievous and defamatory. It is nothing but a figment of the imagination of the originators,” he said.

Afunanya said Kanu’s stock in trade is to peddle rumours, gossips and propaganda aimed at subverting the government, its key agencies and officials.

He said that the service was aware of some “unscrupulous elements keen on exploiting the situation to constitute a nuisance to the freedom of Nigerians as guaranteed in the constitution.”

Afunanya said that the elements were also keen on disrupting the forthcoming 2019 general elections.

“The SSS will not idly standby and watch these undesirable elements achieve their aims,” he said