After a group of thugs removed the mace from the Senate Chamber and escaped from the National Assembly complex with it, questions have been raised with regards to the security formations and operation in the National Assembly and why and how the thugs so easily gained access in and out of the chambers without being intercepted by the security men on duty in the Senate Chamber and the National Assembly Complex.
According to a PREMIUM Times reporter who was at the National Assembly Complex when the incident occurred, the thugs were allowed into the complex by the security personnel at the entrance because they came in company of Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, the embattled Senator who has been accused of masterminding the invasion. While this is not entirely strange, considering the fact that the Senator is recognized and could bring people to his office in the National Assembly at will, it is, however, unexpected to bring people into the Senate Chamber while a plenary was on-going.
Two of the officers who were at the entrance to the Senate Chambers, Forster Ogala and a female officer who refused to be named, explained that:
“The first two (members of the entourage) that we stopped showed us their police ID cards, so we allowed them. When we tried to stop others, the Senator came back and said they were with him.”
When one of the invaders took the mace from its position in front of the presiding officer, he was not challenged, even mildly, by any of the security officials on duty according to the reports of the newsmen on the scene. Instead, the ‘thugs’ went away with the mace in four vehicles they arrived in. One of the four vehicles was a security escort vehicle and another black SUV, common with security operatives.
There are two main exits from the National Assembly: the main gate and the SGF gate. However, leaving through any of them, a vehicle would encounter at least two security blocks. Wednesday’s thieves were not challenged by anyone.
From all information available on the issue of the security breach on this matter, all indications point to one conclusion; that the thugs gained access into the National Assembly Complex and Senate Chamber under the protection of Omo-Agege. This fact is the major reason the Senator is being named as a culprit in the stealing of the mace.
There is also the argument that a Senator on suspension is not allowed into the Senate Chambers as enshrined in the rules of the National Assembly and yet this Senator found his way past security into the Senate chamber. This was also reiterated by Joseph Waku, a former Senator who was also suspended for one week when he was in the Senate, who said:
“He (suspended Senator) can only stay in the office. He can go to his office but not the chamber,”
Omo-Agege (Delta, APC) was suspended for 90 days after he accused his colleagues of working against the interest of President Muhammadu Buhari on the plan to reorder the sequence of the 2019 election.
It is understandable to believe that the security personnel who manned the door allowed Omo-Agege entrance into the Senate Chamber, oblivious of the fact that he had been suspended or that he wasn’t even allowed to enter the chamber, based on his recognition as a serving Senator. What may remain a mystery is how the rowdiness within the Chamber did not activate security protocols which would have made it impossible for the invaders to leave.
Countries around the world are know to take security of their legislative buildings very seriously. Australia, for example, has a 1,000 page Manual on the future Security of its Parliament building. It however lost it in November 2017 even as the Department of Parliamentary Service gave assurance of the security of the building. Australia spends what amounts to 46 billion Naira on the security of its parliament building.
