Some thugs on Wednesday invaded the Senate chamber during plenary at 11.30am on Wednesday and made away with the mace.
The three invaders entered the chamber about the same time that Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, who was suspended by the Senate last week, walked into the chamber.
The invasion occurred at the opening part of the plenary, when senators were presenting petitions from their constituents.
The men came in when Senator Samuel Anyanwu was making a presentation.
The sergeants-at-arms at the entrance of the chamber had challenged the men, with one of them engaging the invaders in fisticuffs.
The thugs, however, overpowered the security men.
One of them went for the mace where it was positioned, as the remaining two engaged those who tried to stop them. A female sergeant-at-arms was pushed down and was injured in the process.
The men, who quickly escaped from the chamber, were said to have got into a black Sports Utility Vehicle at the main entrance of the National Assembly complex and zoomed off.
It was gathered that when the vehicle was prevented from going out at the main gate, the driver manoeuvred the car and drove it out through the Presidential Villa exit.
The development disrupted proceedings as some senators, who were visibly shocked, moved towards the two ends of the chamber while the invasion lasted.
Omo-Agege, who was seated, watched as the drama played out.
The incident lasted less than 10 minutes.
Several minutes after the thugs had left, many of the lawmakers remained where they stood while some of them moved towards the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided.
Ekweremadu repeatedly called on the senators to settle down for continuation of the proceedings, describing the action of the three men as an invasion.
He said, “The Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has just been invaded and we are not going to take it lightly. This is an institutional infraction. I want everybody to settle down. We will continue with our deliberations. Please settle down. If you are not a senator please leave this chamber now.”
The lawmakers later went into a closed session. When the session was re-opened, a new mace had emerged at the chamber.
In its first reaction to the incident, the Senate alleged that Omo-Agege led the suspected thugs into the chamber.
The upper chamber of the National Assembly, in a statement issued by the Chairman, Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi-Abdullahi, said the act was an attempt to overthrow the legislature.
The statement read in part, “Today, some armed hoodlums, led by suspended Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, walked into the Senate’s plenary and seized the symbol of authority of the upper legislative chamber, the mace.
“This action is an act of treason, as it is an attempt to overthrow a branch of the Federal Government of Nigeria by force, and it must be treated as such. All security agencies must stand on the side of due process and immediately mobilise their personnel to retrieve the mace and apprehend the mastermind and the perpetrators of this act.”
Members of the House of Representatives, who came to express support for the senators, were later ushered into the Senate chamber.
The joint session resolved that the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris; and the Director General of the Department of State Services, Lawal Daura, must recover the stolen mace within 24 hours.
No comments:
Post a Comment