Omo-Agege slams Saraki over Misau’s statement on mace theft

Serious crisis brews in the Senate as move for consideration of report of Ad-hoc committee set up to investigate the Mace theft incident of April 18, 2018 is already tearing senators apart .

While Senator Isah Hamma Misau (PDP Bauchi Central) in a statement issued in the early hours of Wednesday, condemned Senator Ovie  Omo-Agege for rushing to court to obtain order restraining the Senate from considering the report, Omo-Agege in a counter statement hours after, slammed the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, for engineering the first statement .

According to Omo-Agege in his reaction, Misau’s statement was nothing but the hand of Esau and the voice of Jacob .

The statement reads in part:”   This is the hand of Esau and the voice of Jacob. It is cowardly for Saraki to have Sen Misau sign his(Saraki’s) press release.

“Saraki needs to brush up on his knowledge of the constitution and the law. No where in the Constitution is he granted the right to investigate crimes. 

“He should be counseled that the ancillary powers derivable from section 88 of the 1999 constitution must be excercised in furtherance of law making and not witch-hunting. 

“Only the Nigeria Police has the powers to investigate crimes. Omo-Agege has not dared the Senate and would never do so. He has instead dared Saraki to continue with his impunity and bigotry at his own peril. 

“The Kwara electorates have  had enough of Saraki’s impunity and excesses and so do we. A terminal date has been fixed and in a while the whole country will  breath a sigh of relief.”

Senator Misau had earlier in his own statement said the Senate leadership should ignore Omo-Agege by taking action on the report before the 8th Senate winds down in the first week of next month .

According to him, Omo-Agege is running helter- skelter to frustrate the report because of his direct involvement in the disgraceful act which however must be resisted by the Senate by getting the latest order he got from the court vacated and considering the report .

He said: ” The court cannot stop the legislature from the performance of its constitutional duties. Some hoodlums attacked the Senate chamber on live television during plenary and inflicted injury on workers on April 18, 2018.

“The leadership set up an adhoc committee to investigate what happened and recommend measures to prevent a recurrence and months after the committte had submitted its report, a Senator rushed to court when he heard that there was a push for the report to be considered before the life of the present Senate expires. He wants to prevent the report of the committee from being considered. In fact, his action has shown the reason why the Senate should actually go ahead and consider the report and act on it, no matter the odds.

“Omo-Agege has dared the Senate. Now, he should face the music. I blame the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki for delaying on the consideration of the report. The Eighth Senate is winding down and the general view of members is that before we leave, all outstanding reports should be considered and acted upon. If Omo-Agege does not have any hidden agenda, why is he seeking to stop the consideration of the report,  after all, he was given fair hearing to state his own case before the panel?

“He is probably running helter-skelter now because he wants to become Deputy Senate President and he knows that if we adopt the recommendation of the committee, the outcome will affect his ambition. 

“This is the reason why people should always consider the future implications of their actions”.

The National Assembly had in April last year after the Mace theft saga in Senate , set up an Ad-hoc committee under the Chairmanship of the Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah (APC Kebbi South) to carry out thorough investigation on the ugly incident and recommend appropriate sanctions for whoever found to have been involved .

Though Senator Ovie  Omo -Agege (APC Delta Central), believed to have facilitated the invasion, refused to make submissions before the committee when invited on account of litigation he slammed on it and the Senate over the matter, but  the committee went ahead to carry out the investigation , report of which has not been considered by the Senate since last year  .

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