Men and
officers of the Inspector General of Police Special Squad, at 8am yesterday, raided
the official guesthouse of the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike
Ekweremadu, at No. 10 Ganges Street, Maitama, Abuja.
According to
a statement released by the Spokesman to the Deputy President of the Senate,
Mr. Uche Anichukwu, the police, however, stated at the end of the search that
nothing incriminating was found.
They met the
steward, Oliver Ogenyi, and some of Ekweramdu’s staff and their children in the
house. Even though they were informed that the property is the guesthouse of
the Deputy President of the Senate, they nevertheless proceeded to thoroughly
search the house without establishing any contact with him or any of his senior
staff.
“The steward
was taken away by the police to the Special Anti-Robbery (SARS) office, Garki,
Abuja, where the IGP Special Squad’s office is also located. Ogenyi was later
released after making a statement,” part of the statement reads.
Ekweremadu
had on May 3, 2017, read on the floor of the Senate, a written statement by an
unnamed Nigerian on an alleged plot to plant incriminating sums of foreign
currencies, arms, and ammunition in a house linked to him under the pretext of
the whistleblower policy.
According to
the unnamed source quoted by Ekweremadu, the aim of the search was to rubbish,
arrest, prosecute, and ultimately remove him from office.
The
statement further reads: “The Deputy President of the Senate is a law-abiding
citizen and does not dispute the fact that the security agencies are empowered
by law to carry out searches on premises in accordance with the law. However,
the law requires that the owner of the property or his representatives must be
informed and should be present during the search.
“Senator
Ekweremadu is worried about the manner in which his guesthouse was raided. The
questions are: Was there a search warrant? What were they looking for? Who
searched the police officers before the search? Who supervised the search? Etc.
“It is also
apposite at this point to inform Nigerians that the Deputy President of the
Senate had received at least three different forewarnings from various
highly-placed sources before the written tip-off he read before the Senate, and
they all pointed in the same direction: a clandestine effort to uproot the
Senator from office by all means possible.
“Therefore,
this latest act of desperation, intimidation, and disregard for due process
further substantiates all the forewarnings.
“Furthermore,
we have it on good authority that agencies of government are scavenging all the
land registries and various banks within and outside the country to find
incriminating reasons to arrest, embarrass, and prosecute him”.
The Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) Senate Caucus
late yesterday condemned in strong terms the police raid on Ekweremadu’s
guesthouse in Abuja.
The Caucus
in a statement in Abuja by its spokesman, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe described
the police action as unwarranted, unacceptable and a deliberate attempt to
muzzle the opposition.
Abaribe also
faulted police explanations that they acted on whistleblower tip off.
He noted
that the “failed gestapo-like operation was nothing but a smokescreen to cover
up a carefully orchestrated plot to intimidate Senator Ekweremadu and by so
doing cow the opposition from pointing out the failings of the government of
the day.”
Meanwhile,
former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, in a statement, last night,
condemned the raid.
He described
the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari of fascism
The
statement, which was posted on his official Facebook account, reads, “This is
shameful and shocking. Raiding the homes of our friends and leaders like
Ekweremadu and harassing their children will not deter, stop or silence those
of us that are in the opposition. It will only harden our hearts and strengthen
our resolve.
0 Comments