Senate Mace theft: Police still on trail of eight suspects

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ohe Police are still working round the clock to arrest the eight men who, on Wednesday, stormed the Senate chamber and ran away with the mace.The suspects were allegedly brought to Abuja from Delta State.

A monitoring committee raised by the Inspector-General of Police to probe the matter has retrieved the video clips of the invasion for analysis.

It is expected that the video clips will assist in tracking down the suspects.

The monitoring committee is headed by a Commissioner of Police.

Although the National Assembly has a Close Circuit TV (CCTV) system, it was unclear yesterday if the device was working at the time of the incident.

The committee may be required to give its opinion on the CCTV system as part of its findings.

A female Sergeant-at-arms, Sandra Davou, who was injured in the process of resisting the hoodlums and was subsequently hospitalized, has recovered.

She was let home on Friday.

Sandra was slapped, beaten, and pushed to the floor and chairs smashed on her head.

The Senate is insisting that the culprits be brought to book.

The Nation gathered in Abuja yesterday that detectives are on the trail of the suspects.

Heads of security units in the National Assembly may be quizzed by the police in the course of the ongoing investigation.

A source said yesterday that the police are determined to get to the root of the invasion.

“The Monitoring Committee has retrieved video clips of the invasion and a forensic analysis will be done accordingly to identify the culprits,” the source said.

“The team might also review the CCTV in the National Assembly if it was functional at that time. Some heads of security units and Sergeant-at-arms are expected to interact with the police investigators.”

A principal officer in the Senate said the Red Chambers expects that having made “our position known to the Presidency, it must fish out the suspects. Anything short of arrest of the suspects will not augur well for the Executive-Legislature relationship.

“Some Nigerians have done well by providing information on some of the suspects. Their list was all over the Internet based on the video and photographs of the incident. There were even photographs of some of the suspects in chains which were widely circulated.

“So, left to me, Nigerians and the media have done 50 per cent of the job for the police. We expect swift investigation or else we will be sending a wrong signal to the outside world.”

Sergeant-at-arms Sandra Davou is now celebrated as a heroine in the National Assembly following her confrontation with the hoodlums.

An eye witness to the incident said: “When the thugs invaded the chamber, she confronted them. But she was slapped, beaten, and pushed to the floor with chairs smashed on her head.

“She fought gallantly but the thugs overwhelmed her. She has been discharged from hospital. We are all expecting her on duty from next week.”

Senate President Bukola Saraki who was on an official assignment in the United States of America (USA) during the attack is now back in the county.

He has since been briefed about the situation and “he has taken charge,” a ranking Senator said yesterday.

He added: “The appropriate response of the Senate to the invasion and theft of the mace will be known from this week.”

The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu had spoken with the media on Wednesday after briefing Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

He said: “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.

“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.

“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.