-Ekweremadu narrates ordeal
-Buhari, Osinbajo meet IGP
-Honour invitation or face consequence, Police warn Saraki
Senate President Bukola Saraki, has explained his encounter with a team of mobile police men who laid siege to his Maitama residence in Abuja, in the early hours of yesterday. Besides, another set of security personnel also stormed the official residence of Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, also in Abuja. The police action was said to be targeted at stopping the duo from presiding at the plenary where some lawmakers of the All Progressives Congress (APC), were planning to dump the party. Saraki was billed to appear before the police yesterday to answer certain allegations regarding his role in the Offa bank robbery. Despite the siege, Saraki made it to the National Assembly at about 10:40 a.m. and presided over the plenary, even as his deputy as still under siege. During the session, the ruling All Progressives Congress lost 14 of its members to the Peoples Democratic Party, after which plenary was adjourned until September 25, 2018. Narrating his ordeal during the plenary yesterday, he said, “as we are speaking, our DSP cannot leave the house. We must save this democracy.” “The road leading to my place was cordoned off and all cars coming in and out as early as 6:30 were being stopped and you have to come down. “My convoy was stopped from moving. Given something that one was prepared for, I had my own car too. So the deputy senate president called me and said he could not come here. “And as you are all aware, very late yesterday, at about 8 p.m., I received a letter asking me to report to the police on a case of this Offa robbery which had been concluded before now. “That’s the situation why the DSP could not come here and I was already going somewhere else. If not, this plenary would not have been able to hold today. So I had to come here,” adding God made him escape the plot. Continuing, he said, “but as you all rightly said, if one of our colleagues cannot come out for no fault of his, I don’t see how we can continue to sit and ignore the fact that a presiding officer cannot be here. And if it was by the plan, I too, would not be here. It was just by the intervention of the almighty God that I was able to get myself here.” My ordeal -Ekweremadu Also lamenting the siege laid to his residence the police and operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Senate Deputy President Ekweremadu, said he was neither invited by the State Security Service nor the Police. Narrating his ordeal, the lawmaker said his residence was put under siege by the security agents as early as 6.00 am. The position was made known in a statement by the his Special Adviser, Media, Uche Anichukwu, who said the lawmaker was billed to preside at the Senate’s plenary today(yesterday) in the absence of Saraki The statement read, “The Apo Legislative Quarters residence of the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, is currently under the siege of men of the Nigeria Police Force and the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. “With the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, expected to report to the Intelligence Response Team of the Nigeria Police Force in Guzappe, Abuja, this Tuesday morning, Senator Ekweremadu is expected to preside over plenary. “They took over the entire vicinity before 6am. There is no going in or coming out. Meanwhile, there was no prior invitation to the senator by any of the security agencies or the EFCC.”
Saraki must appear, police insist Amidst all this, the police are insisting that the Senate President must turn himself in for questioning or face the consequence. The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, wrote Saraki on Monday night, asking him to report for questioning and to offer further clarification about a previous statement he had submitted to the police about his alleged complicity in the robbery. But in a statement by police spokesperson, Ag.DCP Jimoh Moshood yesterday, the force said Saraki was yet to appear as summoned, and the police would not hesitate to activate relevant legal instruments to compel the lawmaker to honour the invitation. In a statement yesterday, police spokesperson Jimoh Moshood, said Saraki was yet to appear as summoned, and the police would not hesitate to activate relevant legal instruments to compel the lawmaker to honour the invitation. “The Senate President must honour Police invitation; otherwise the Force will not hesitate to use all the instruments of the law to ensure compliance with the law.” Jimoh also clarified that the Force did not besiege the Senate President residence as alleged, saying, there was no authorised deployment of Police personnel to besiege the residence of the Senate President or his deputy as reported in the media. He, however, said the police hierarchy has directed a thorough investigation to ascertain the facts in the episode.
Reactions trail siege Meanwhile, reactions have continued to trail the siege laid to both Saraki and Ekweremadu’s homes. In a statement by his media office, President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, John Nwodo, warned that”nothing should happen to Mr. Ike Ekweremadu.” Nwodo said that the alarm has become necessary following some disturbing reports that operatives of the state besieged his (Ekweremadu) house this morning for yet undisclosed motives.” “In a democratic setting as ours, we expect security agencies to be civil and work within the rule of the law without breaching the civil liberty of any individual,” he said.
Balarabe Musa, Dankwambo too Also, Gombe state Governor, Ibrahim Dankwambo, described the action of the security operatives as the manifestation of tyranny in a democratic system. “I condemn in its entirety the siege on the houses of the Principal Officers of the National Assembly by officers and men of the Nigerian Police. “The National Assembly as an arm of the government must be accorded the due respect that it deserves. This is tyranny,” Mr. Dankwambo said in a tweet yesterday. Similarly, former Kaduna state Governor, Alhaji Balraba Musa, believed the security operatives could only be acting on the President Muhammadu Buhari’s instructions. “The advice should go to the president. The president should know that he is the chief security officer of the country. He is the commander in chief of the armed forces; he is the controller of the resources of the country. So, the last blame lies on the president,” he said
