As Ekweremadu exonerates Buhari, Osinbajo from invasion The Federal Government has expressed shock at the invasion of the National Assembly and the subsequent snatching of the Senate mace by thugs on Wednesday Thugs going with the Mace. Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan Also the Presidency sympathized with the leadership and members of the senate for the invasion of the upper legislative chamber by suspected thugs and promised to join hands with the parliament to fish out those behind it. In a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the security agencies have been directed to immediately unravel the circumstances surrounding the breach of security that led to the invasion. He said the security around the National Assembly complex would also be reinforced to prevent a recurrence. Senate invasion: Presidency sympatises with senate THE Presidency sympathized with the leadership and members of the senate for the invasion of the upper legislative chamber by suspected thugs and promised to join hands with the parliament to fish out those behind it. Meanwhile, the leadership of the senate led by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu accompanied by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, (senate), Senator Ita Enang briefed the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, on the invasion of the senate. In an interview after the closed-door meeting with the Vice President, Senator Ekweremadu said that the Vice President condemned the attack on the red chamber and promised that the presidency would join hands to ensure that the perpetrators were fished out. The Deputy Senate President while fielding questions on why he was at the villa said, “Well I am 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, so it was appropriate for him to know what transpired because we run democracy we are all in one government and 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. So, the Senate President is out of the country, its therefore my responsibility to come over and brief the Vice President. He has sympathized 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, its not acceptable to me, its not acceptable to the VP, its not acceptable to my colleagues, I believe its 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, 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.” On whether Senator Ovie Omo-Agege who was recently suspended by the senate and accused of being behind the invasion has legal right to enter the chamber, he said, “ 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.”
