Senate gives police 24hrs ultimatum to retrieve stolen mace

The Inspector-General of Police and the State Security Service (SSS) are to recover the Senate stolen mace, forcefully removed at the chambers by hoodlums on Wednesday.

The directive was given by the lawmakers at the end of a closed-door session held immediately after the removal of the mace, the symbol of authority for the legislature.

The mace was stolen by thugs suspected to be supporters of a suspended senator, Ovie Omo Agege (Delta, APC), Premium Times reported.

The Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, who announced the call on the security chiefs while presiding at plenary with another mace, said that the legislature would not be intimidated in any way.

He said that while the Upper Chamber was awaiting the “return’’ of the mace, it would continue with its legislative activities, adding that the lawmakers would not be terrified in carrying out their constitutional duties.

“This morning, we had an unusual incident at the chambers in the senate.

“At about 11.30 (am), some armed thugs invaded the Senate chambers, assaulted some of our staff and some of the media persons and forcefully took away the mace.

“They passed through the entrance and the gate and left the National Assembly with the mace. They attempted kidnapping two of our senators.

“They were eventually left, but we decided that we will not be intimidated by the circumstance. We will stand by and defend our democracy.

“We have decided to go through everything on our Order Paper for today even if it takes us till 6.00 p.m. We will conclude everything here because that is what we are being paid to do.

“We are going to get to the root of this matter, and I believe that I speak the mind of all of you here if I say that security agencies must recover our mace within 24 hours.

“We are giving the Inspector-General of Police and the Department of State Security (DSS) 24 hours to recover our mace,’’ he said.