BREAKING NEWS
Senate Thug Invasion: Ekweremadu Speaks On His Meeting With Osinbajo
Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu has said he was at the
Presidential Villa to update Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo, on what transpired
earlier at the Red Chamber during plenary on Wednesday.
Ekweremadu
and Osinbajo were having behind closed-doors meeting for hours after the
invasion of the Senate chambers by suspected thugs.
Ekweremadu told state house correspondents at the end of the meeting that
since the President, Muhammadu Buhari, and the Senate President, Bukola Saraki,
were out of the country, it was incumbent on him to intimate the Vice-President
on the invasion of Senate by hoodlums.
He said: “I’m sure you are aware of the senate invasion today and we have
to come and brief the vice-president because the president is not in town. It
is appropriate for him to know. We are in a democracy; we are all in one
government.
“It is the responsibility of the president or the vice-president to
ensure that there is law and order in the country and once we have this kind of
major development it is important that he is briefed at the earliest
opportunity.
“The senate president is out of the country, it is, therefore, my
responsibility to come over and brief the vice-president who has sympathised
with us over what happened and he is going to join forces with us to ensure
that we get to the root of the matter to make sure that this will not happen
again.
“For us, it’s a threat to our democracy, the invasion of the parliament
is not acceptable to any person, it’s not acceptable to me, it’s not acceptable
to the VP, it’s not acceptable to my colleagues, I believe it’s not also
acceptable to the president so those who acted this script must be on their
own.”
He also appealed to the media to do its best in discouraging this “kind
of brigandage”.
Ekweremadu also criticised Omo-Agege, wondering the right he had to enter
into the red chamber when he was on suspension.
“All we need to do as a country is to ensure that this is forestalled and
I want to appeal to the media to help us discourage this kind of brigandage so
that people have to behave in a very responsible manner. But let me assure you
that we are on top of the situation, we did our sitting today and we are going
to continue tomorrow,” he said.
“Having suffered suspension, does Omo-Agege have legal right to enter the
chamber? It was a breach of the law for him to force himself into the chambers,
as I said police is still investigating we are going to find out the details of
those who aided him to come in and then some of them I believe have been
arrested and we will get to the root of the matter,” he added,
It could be recalled that
Senator Ovie Omo-Agege allegedly led suspected thugs into the senate chamber to
cart away the mace, which is the symbol of authority of the legislature.
Theodore Orji, a Senator from Abia state was speaking on the floor of the
senate when the unwanted visitors broke in.
The senate immediately went into a closed-door session after which a
spare mace was brought and it reconvened.
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Ben Murray-Bruce, the Senator representing Bayelsa East constituency, has
warned that the Senate will not be “cowed”, after thugs broke into the National
Assembly and made away with the mace on Wednesday.
The Advanced Peoples Democratic Party, (APDA) has described the invasion
of the Senate Chamber by suspected thugs on Monday as a national embarrassment
which must be handled with seriousness.
Elder statesman and former Senator representing Benue North-West District
between 1999 and 2003, Joseph Waku, has described the snatching of the mace
from the chamber as an attempted coup.
The Senator representing Delta Central district in the National Assembly,
Ovie Omo-Agege, has reacted to the invasion of the Senate Chambers by suspected
hoodlums.