The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, CACOL, has reacted to the snatching of the Senate mace by thugs suspected to have been organized by suspended Senator Ovie Omo-Agege.
The group also claimed that there were plans within the senate leadership to replace the stolen original mace with an adulterated variant.
Thugs suspected to be loyal to the suspended Senator representing Delta Central Senatorial district, on Wednesday, invaded the red chambers and forcefully took away the mace.
CACOL, in a statement forwarded to DAILY POST on Wednesday by its head of Media and Publication, Aghagbobi Ikenna, on behalf of the its Executive Chairman, Debo Adeniran, wondered how the Senate Chamber was infiltrated by hoodlums while a plenary was in session and carted away the mace at the full glare of senators.
CACOL condemned the act and described it as a one with an intent to shut down the decision making body of the State.
The group pointed out that while “the mace is the symbol of authority in the National Assembly, all the activities carried out while the mace is missing is null and void thus putting the affairs of the country at a standstill. The act is an act of terrorism and should not be taken with laxity.”
CACOL expressed concerns on the toll the incident might take on the country in the long run and called for the Nation’s security system to make frantic efforts or whatever search method is being conducted already for the recovery of the original Senate mace.
CACOL added that “It will be preposterous for the Senate leadership to hurriedly replace the stolen mace with a contrived or an adulterated variant as that would make any decision made in the Senate chamber questionable and ineffectual.
“This is because of the reliable information we had that all efforts by the Sergeant-at Arms and other security personnel to retrieve the original mace proved abortive as the mace-robbers left the Assembly complex successfully with the mace.
“The Executive Chairman advised that the DPO of the National Assembly police formation should be made to answer hard questions on how the hoodlums who robbed the Senate of its mace gained access to the NASS premises and the chamber without detection and curtailment.”
CACOL further exhorted that “everyone involved in the show of shame that has caused Nigeria unprecedented embarrassment be brought to book forthwith.”
It added that “security system in all governmental and other national institutions be generally beefed-up in all spheres of the Nation to avoid the pandemonium that self-help effort by citizenry, which sense of insecurity in a nation could engender.”
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