Chaos as ‘thugs’ invade Senate, cart away mace

* Senate gives IGP, DG DSS 24 hours to recover stolen mace
* Police arrest Omo- Agege inside NASS premises
* We’ll not be intimidated- Ekweremadu* FG orders probe
The Nigerian Senate was on Wednesday thrown into utter confusion as suspected thugs invaded the chamber, forcefully took away the mace which is the parliamentary instrument of authority and forced senators to hurriedly suspend plenary.

At the resumption of plenary after an emergency executive session, certain issues on the order paper including the second reading of a bill for an act to amend the provisions of the Electoral Act were deliberated upon.

But a suspended senator, Senator Ovie Omo- Agege, whose unexpected presence at the chamber during the fracas was arrested by the police at bout 1.55pm as he was exiting the chamber.

The senators had hardly settled down for the business of the day when pandemonium broke out at about 11.16 am as some hoodlums invaded the red chamber and went straight for the mace which was taken away without much resistance from the security operatives within the premises.

Unconfirmed source said that the suspended Senator Ovie Omo- Agege made an unexpected entrance and was followed by some men in what seemed a coincidence.

Storming out of the chamber, the intruders led by a man in a red native dress carrying the mace bullied their ways out and shouting ‘move move’ and headed for the open foyer before finding their way out of the premises.

They were said to have taken away the mace in a Sports Utility Range Rover, a sedan car and two hilux pick up vans which were packed at the entrance of the White House, and drove out of NASS unchallenged.

In the process of taking away the mace, a female sergent-ar-arm was wounded while trying to resist the attempt.

Attempt by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over plenary to calm down his colleagues, failed as they were all obsessed with getting out of the chamber unhurt.

Trying to call plenary to order, Ekweremadu at about 11.22am said “the Senate has just been invaded and we are not going to take this kindly. Distinguished senators, please settle down”, but his plea fell on dear ears as all tried to get out.

The Senate then went into an executive session.

Responding to the incident, the Senate spokesperson, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, said:, “Some hoodlums led by suspended Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, walked into the Senate 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.

“This action is also an affront on the legislature, and the Leadership of the House has come to express their support against this action”.

Order was restored when the plenary resumed back at about 12.07pm to continue deliberation and they received members of the House of Representatives led by Deputy Speaker, Lasun Yusuf that paid solidarity visit.

Briefing House members, Ekweremadu said: ” This morning we had an unusual incident at the chambers in Senate .At about 11:30am some armed thugs invaded the Senate chambers, assaulted some of our staff and some of the media persons and forcefully took away the mace of the Senate.

“They passed through the entrance and the gate and left the National Assembly with the mace. They attempted kidnapping two of our senators. They were eventually left but we decided that we will not be intimidated by the circumstance.

We will stand by our democracy, we will defend our democracy. It is an affront on the Senate, it is an affront on democracy, it is an affront on the National Assembly, it is an affront on the parliament but we are going to stand together to ensure that we continue with the assignment Nigerians gave us to represent them.

“We are going to get to the root of this matter and I believe that I speak the mind of all of you here if I say that security agencies must recover our mace within 24 hours.

“We are giving the the Inspector General of Police and the Department of State Security (DSS) 24 hours to recover our mace.

‘Let me thank the Deputy Speaker and our colleagues from the House of Representatives. We want to assure you that we refuse to be intimidated. We are going to carry out our assignment fully.

“We have decided to go through everything on our Order Paper for today even if it takes us till 6pm today (Wednesday). We will conclude everything here because that is what we are been paid to do”.

Giving words of solidarity on behalf of the entire House of Representatives, Deputy Speaker, Lasun Yusuf said: “I have read a lot of books about representative democracy and what baffles me most is the fact that once you try to demean the institution of the assembly that means you are pretenders to the institution of democracy and that means that once your assembly ceases to function or you ostracise or you want to muzzle, definitely you are no longer practicing democracy.

“Let the pretenders know that it is the assembly that defines democracy and for the fact that we lack that knowledge and because of the way some of us started practicing politics, a lot of Nigerian populace do not agree with the fact that if we have to develop the institution of legislation we must be well strengthened and once you do not do that you should as well forget about democracy.

“I was coming out of my office this morning (Wednesday) because yesterday (Tuesday) I discussed with the Speaker to preside over plenary. The Sergeant-at-Arms accosted me and said the mace has been taken away but when I entered this chamber, I saw mace so I feel happy that democracy is going to work in Nigeria.

“We decided on our own too to start sitting and to make sure that we treat the Order Paper as it should be treated.

“We had decided to visit to solidarise not with you alone with you but to tell Nigerians that this assembly must make sure that democracy must work in Nigeria.

“We are in solidarity with you and we will make a resolution to ensure that the mace is recovered within 24 hours.

“You can be rest assured that whatever touches you touches the House of Representatives”.

However, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege was led away from the National Assembly for possible questioning over his purported role in the matter.

Senator Omo-Agege (APC, Delta), who was allowed to sit at plenary till the end of proceeding was later arrested by the Commissioner of Police, FCT Command, Sadiq Bell in company of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), National Assembly, Sulu Gambari, at about 1.55 pm.

He was led into a waiting police hilux pick up van with registration number NPF 840 and whisked away at exactly 1.58 pm.

The question on the lips of everyone within the National Assembly was where were the retinue of security operatives like the DSS, riot policemen, conventional policemen and sergents-at-arm within the National Assembly, most especially those within the White House section of National Assembly when the suspected thugs entered the red chambers.

The Daily Times investigation revealed that the invasion took place when the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, was away attending the World Bank/ IMF meeting in the United States.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives, on Wednesday, said it will investigate the circumstances surrounding the invasion of the Senate by hoodlums, just as it condemned the snatching of the mace by the unidentified men.

This resolution was passed after the Deputy Speaker, Yusuff Suleiman Lasun, had led a delegation of House members in a solidarity visit to the Senate over the incident.

Passing a motion of urgent national importance sponsored by the Leader of the House, Hon Femi Gbadjabiamila, the House also gave the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, 24 hours to recover the snatched mace.

Moving the motion, Gbajabiamila condemmed the attack, describing it as a lack of competence on the side of security officials of the National Assembly.

He described the incidence as an abnomally, calling on the leadership of the National Assembly to take prompt action to address the security lapses.

He said, “The National Assembly has become a commercial centre instead of a law making place; people hawk everywhere. We need to discuss how to beef up the security.

“I don’t think this can ever happen in the presidency. It is a threat on the democracy of this nation.

Also, Hon Bode Ayorinde, speaking on the motion, said that what happened constituted a security breach of the legislature and called for a thorough action against those behind the invasion.

Addressing House correspondents after plenary, the Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon Abdulrazak Namdas, said: ” You’re aware of what happened today (Wednesday). The National Assembly was under invasion by armed men while the Senate was in session.

“We’ve instructed the inspector general of police to recover the mace. We condemn the invasion in its entirety. What happened is unthinkable; that in broad daylight someone can walk into the chamber and go with the mace.

“In the House of Representatives, our mace is intact and we had our session and our mace wasn’t replaced”.

He added that the House has constituted a committee to unravel the circumstances surrounding the invasion and removal of the mace from the senate chambers.

Also, the Federal Government has expressed shock at the invasion of the National Assembly and the subsequent snatching of the Senate mace by thugs on Wednesday.

In a statement made available in Abuja on Wednesday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the security agencies have been directed to immediately unravel the circumstances surrounding the breach of security that led to the invasion.

He added that the security around the National Assembly complex would also be reinforced to prevent a future recurrence.