There is nothing new under the
sun. On Wednesday, Ovie Omo-Agege, a senator from Delta state, led some
unidentified persons into the upper legislative chamber of the national
assembly and the senate’s symbol of authority was carted away in an operation that
lasted less than 10 minutes.
This came as a surprise to so
many but the red chamber witnessed a similar incident 18 years ago. In an
attempt to stall his impeachment in 2000, Chuba Okadigbo— who was the president
of the fourth senate— snatched the mace and reportedly took it to his house.
The government sent policemen to
Okadigbo’s residence in Abuja to retrieve the missing mace. The police officers
told the ex-senate president their mission but he refused to release it.
Okadigbo had accused former
President Olusegun Obasanjo of being behind the plot to remove him.
“The police arrived at 5.55 a.m.
(0455 GMT) in six jeeps fully loaded with armed officers,” he had told BBC at
the time.
“They told me they had come to
collect the mace and that they were acting on orders from the Inspector General
of Police. I said I would never give them the mace. I have to be dead before
you get the mace, I told them.
“This is executive lawlessness
and is unprecedented in Nigeria’s history.”
Okadigbo eventually lost the
battle as he was impeached and he died three years after that incident.
Fast forward to 2018, the police
are on a similar mission — retrieving a missing mace. The senate has given
security agencies 24 hours to get back the mace. Will the arrest of Omo-Agege
make the job of the police easier?
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There is a difference between Okadigbo taking d mace home & a bunch of thugs carting away the mace.
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