Breaking… Thugs invade Senate, snatch mace

Some people suspected to be political thugs on Wednesday morning invaded the floor of the Senate during plenary and snatched away the mace.

This is coming about 24 hours after the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki left for Washington, United States, to attend this year’s Spring Meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Ripples Nigeria had reported recently that there were moves to unseat Saraki by aggrieved senators unhappy with his style of leadership.

The report stated that the senate president had to cancel an international engagement in Geneva, Switzerland, to fight for his political survival, because he would have returned to Nigeria an ordinary member of the Senate and begging for a Committee to serve on.

But his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Yusuf Olaniyonu told our correspondent that the trip had to be canceled due to a number of pressing domestic engagements.

He told Ripples Nigeria on phone that Nigeria’s number one lawmaker had to stay back, especially to enable him attend the caucus meeting that had been called by his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

In its response to the Wednesday incident, Senate through its spokesman, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi said the hoodlums were led by Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, who was recently suspended from the red chamber.

His statement read, “Today, some armed 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 mobilize 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”.

While he explained that the Senate is in an Executive session, Senator Abdullahi also said that an updated statement will be released immediately after the closed door session.

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