Omo-Agege keeps mum at panel
By Ikechukwu Okaforadi and Musa Adamu
The Commissioner of Police in the Force Headquarters, Abu Idris Sani, during yesterday’s resumed investigation of the senate invasion, said the probe could take up to ten years to come to an end, saying the important thing is for the desired result to be achieved.
Sani who is the CP in charge of the Monitoring Unit of the office of the Inspector General of Police, (IGP) Ibrahim Idris, said this at Ad-Hoc Committee on the invasion of the senate, when the lawmakers accused the Nigerian police of foot dragging in the probe.
The Co- Chairman of the Committee, Hon Betty Apiafi, had claimed that Police was foot dragging on the investigation, according to her “Police investigation on the national embarrassment as far as we are concerned is very slow and how long would it take?”, to which the CP said “it could take 10 years”.
Angered by the response, the co- chairman of the committee replied by saying “why not 30years?”.
She said the investigation on the invasion by the Police where people involved were captured by Close Circuit Television (CCTV) and arrested by National Assembly division of the Police, is not impressive because those involved supposed to have been charged to court by now.
But the CP interjected saying “that is your personal opinion, as far as the Police is concerned, investigation into criminal matters has no timeline, more so, when the invader who actually carried the mace is still at large.
“Our focus for now is to get to the root of the matter by getting the the real snatcher of the mace and not just the other accomplice who have all denied the act in their statements”, he said.
But the CP was further taken to task by the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah (APC Kebbi South) , who said Police was not pushful enough in the investigation, which according to him, clearly shows that something is wrong.
“It may not be wrong for one to believe the theory of internal conspiracy on the matter that the Police and other security agencies allowed the April 18, 2018 invasion of the senate to happen just to embarrass the Senate and by extension, the National Assembly.
“Your slow space of investigation on the invasion is not in tandem with provisions of section 4 of the Police Act and section 7 of the Investigation Act and we are not impressed at all”, he said.
The committee therefore ordered the CP to bring before it today, the officer handling the investigation of suspects in the custody of FCT Police Command.
Earlier in his appearance before the Committee, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, believed to have facilitated the invasion , told the committee that he was already in court over the matter and it would amount to subjudice for him to entertain any question on it.
Omo- Agege in the suit filed on Monday in the Federal High Court of Nigeria , Abuja division , sued the Senate , Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Senator Bala Ibn Na’ Allah and other members of the committee, the Clerk of the National Assembly, the Attorney General of the Federation, Inspector General of Police and Director of State Security Service .
The Senator in the suit sought for three separate interlocutory injunctions restraining the the 7 defendants from investigating him on the matter pending the determination of the suit.
Meanwhile, Senator Ali Ndume, alleged to have instructed sergeant at arms not to protect the Senate Mace that day denied issuing such instruction to anybody, adding that the officer involved should know his or her responsibility.
