Just in: Confusion at Senate as Omo-Agege supporters invade plenary, escape with mace
…However, Senate continues plenary with new Mace, give IG, DSS 24 hour for recovery
Apprehension enveloped the upper chambers of the Nigerian National Assembly Thursday afternoon, as tugs numbering over 100 took the Senators by surprise and stormed the plenary where they made away with the Mace, the constitutional symbol, of authority to all decisions and deliberations made at the floor of the chamber.
Whereas members of the House of Representatives in solidarity stormed the Senate chamber at 11:35pm to register high level support for their colleagues on hearing the news of the mace removal, some of them alleged that the miscreants may not be unconnected with the recent suspension of Senator Ovie Omo-Agege (Delta State APC).
The embattled lawmaker, whose phones had been switched off as at the time of filling the story, was said to be suspended by the Red chambers over his derogatory utterances on the Senate for passing the Election Sequence Bill.
The Bill seeks to change the sequence of general election by pushing presidential election to the last after the Assembly and Gubernatorial elections.
Just as Senator Omo-Agage’s comment that the new Bill is designed to thwart President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election bid, political pundits say the new Bill when passed into law, will among other things, collapse chances of bandwagon effects after presidential election on other elections after the
Business Hilights National Assembly Correspondent reports that whereas plenary has continued with a new Mace, the emergency joint session of the National Assembly resolved that the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris; and the Director General of the Department of State Services, Lawal Daura, must recover the stolen mace “within 24 hours.”
In his remarks, the Deputy Speaker of the House, Yusuf Lasun, who led the Reps, stated that there would not be a democracy without a functional legislature.
Observers say the development may have stemmed from the organized build up to make sure that the planned overruling of the President so as to veto and sign the Bill into law after the constitutional 90 days.
The National Assembly had given the indication that they are waiting for the 90 days to veto and sign the new Electoral Act which will change the election sequence for the good of democracy.
Already, there is a court ruling aiming at barring the lawmakers from vetoing the Bill, but it is not yet clear if the lawmakers will fall to the legal exercise.
Efforts to get reactions from the Police and DSS failed at press time.
