BY Anayo Okoli

Umuahia- AS the controversy over the gang rape alleged to have taken place at Abia State University lingers, the state government Tuesday restated its position that the incident did not take place at the state-owned university.

The government was reacting to the alleged conclusion by both the National Human Rights Commission and House of Representatives Committee on Human Rights that the gang rape actually took place at the university.

Meanwhile, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in the last election, Ochiagha Reagan Ufomba, has faulted the position of the government on the issue, saying, “what is paramount is to condemn the dastardly act and not where it happened.”

But the government, speaking through the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Chief Don Ubani, said it would not want people or group of people to come together to try to bring down its image and that of people of the state.

Ubani warned that people should stop passing judgment based on unsubstantiated issues, even as he said the state government welcomed any investigative device to unravel the crime.

He said: “We will want anything that will help to unravel the issue, but it must not only be conclusive but must be confirmed to a logical conclusion for justice to be seen to have been done.”

According to him,  the government was concerned when news of the alleged rape incident broke out and ensured that preliminary investigation was carried out, which proved that it never happened in the university.

He said the state government frowns on ugly incidents as crimes and rape or anything that debases human being.

Ubani said the government had done everything within its power to ensure that the culprits were brought to book.