Senate mace: We are yet to arrest thugs’ leader – Nigeria Police

The Nigeria Police yesterday said they are yet to arrest the man who grabbed and made away with the Senate mace in April.

A commissioner of police, Habu Sani, said this when he appeared before members of the National Assembly ad-hoc committee investigating the incident on Tuesday.
According to him, “there were two investigations which have yielded an interim report; one initiated at the police headquarters and a second at the FCT command of the force.”

Although the police announced it had arrested six suspects in connection to the invasion, Sani said, “the arrow man, who grabbed the mace is still at large.”
The chairman of the investigative committee, Bala Na’Allah, had said the committee would like to know the present status of the suspects who were arrested by the command but transferred to the force headquarters.
Mr Na’Allah read from the National Assembly station diary, calling the names of the suspects and items found on them.

“But the focus at that time (day of the theft) was for us to get the suspects. Unfortunately, the alleged suspects were taken by the command headquarters with the senator, Omo-Agege, that was said to be responsible for bringing some of the hoodlums.
“As at that time, from the other side of the force investigation, we have not seen the suspects. They are still in the custody of the police command and we allow them to carry out some preliminary investigation before transferring the case while we continue to give the technical and special attention to unravel the theft or possible removal of the Senate mace.
“Since the command is conversant with the environment, they were allowed to continue the investigation.
“What we have is that on that fateful day, a suspended senator made himself available at the plenary on the ground that the senate has no right to suspend him. Alongside with him, there are people who claimed to be his aide and assisted him to enter the chamber. While they were there, an incident happened that a non-member of the Senate took the mace out.
“The only aspect we needed to go further is trying to see the link between them and the removal. As at the time they were arrested, the mace was not recovered from them, rather, it was recovered outside. That means, if the number with the statement by the clerk that they are five and we have six suspects. That means the number he saw may be more than that. It means we have to expand and that is what we are doing,” he said