A new investigation has shown that the theft of the mace from the senate was plotted by as many as fifteen senators who were desperate to reinstate Ovie Omo-Agege.
According to Vanguard Newspaper, last Wednesday’s invasion of the National Assembly was a scripted plot to force the reinstatement of Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and instigate the removal of the Senator Bukola Saraki leadership of the Senate.
It was learned that the conspiracy stirred by 15 senators was directed at provoking a confrontation that would have led to a pandemonium.
Three vocal senators, who the dissenting senators hoped to trigger a fight that would have led to the pandemonium, were, however, absent at the sitting.
Senate sources privy to the development quoted by Vanguard Newspaper said that the 15 senators, who planned the insurrection at the Abuja residence of a former governor presently serving in the Senate had hoped that Senators Dino Melaye, APC, Kogi West, Enyinnanya Abaribe, PDP, Abia South or Obinna Ogba, PDP, Ebonyi would have engaged the invaders and thus triggered a commotion that would have led to the invasion of the Senate chambers by security services.
That meeting in the night followed an earlier evening meeting at the National Assembly complex, Senate sources said.
However, by happen stance, the three senators, who the group of 15 hoped to trigger the crisis were absent that Wednesday, thereby preventing the envisaged crisis.
“To achieve the dual purpose of removing the Senate leadership, especially with the absence of the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, who is on an official trip to Washington, USA, and the reinstatement of Senator Omo-Agege, it was concluded that the mace should be forcefully taken away,” a source revealed.
The source added that: “The calculation of the plotters was that some hot-blooded Senators like Senator Dino Melaye and Senator Obinna Ogba would not allow the mace to go without making serious trouble. In the process, there would be fisticuffs and pandemonium in the red chambers,” the source close to the Senate leadership added.
“The mace would not only be taken away, but the armed invaders would use the opportunity to deal with some ‘heady’ Senators’, including the presiding officer, Ike Ekweremadu. However, it happened that Senators Dino, Ogba, and Enyinnaya Abaribe were not on in the chamber when the assailants came.”
It was further gathered that the expectation was that following the mayhem a motion for adjournment of the sitting to allow heads to cool would have followed.
The plan was that after the adjournment, the group of 15 senators would return to the Senate chambers with the mace earlier grabbed and hold a sitting during which they would have suspended the Senate leadership and elected another leadership.
The first task after that would have been to lift the suspension on Senator Omo-Agege.
“I am thanking God that Dino was not around because by the time he came he was so angry that the thugs were allowed to go away with the mace. He was saying that they would have killed him with the mace that Wednesday,” the source revealed to Saturday Vanguard.
Reacting to the development, the Senate President, Sen Bukola Saraki, cautioned those behind the saga, spoiling for change of leadership.
Saraki, who was represented by Sen Ben Murray-Bruce at TheNiche 4th anniversary lecture, said this in Lagos yesterday:
“What happened was a disgrace and did not make any sense. Looking at it critically, they were working for change in Senate leadership, but they left what they were supposed to do and engaged in the undemocratic act.
“If you want to impeach a President all you need to do is to put it to vote and the majority will have their way instead of stealing the mace.
“Come to think of it, behind us is where President lives. So to escape through the back where the President leaves considering the presence of security agents gives room for many questions that need answers.
“There will be no regime change. They are only wasting time.
Alvsworld 