A detachment of security operatives on Tuesday laid siege to the homes of President of the Nigerian Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu in Abuja.
There are very strong speculations that the move is intended to prevent the senior lawmakers from making it to the National Assembly today because of an alleged plan by many lawmakers to decamp en masse from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
SlamReportsAfrica had reported how the Chairman of the ruling party, Adams Oshiomhole, had made underground moves to persuade members of the breakaway faction, R-APC, not to carry out their threat. There had been strong indications that the initiative would meet a brick wall.
The planned cross carpeting, if allowed to take place, would render the APC a minority party, a fact attested to by the Peoples Democratic Party leader in the House of Representatives on Monday.
Saraki’s spokesperson, Yusuph Olaniyonu, confirming the siege to PREMIUM TIMES said:
“As I am talking to you, I cannot access the street. They have barricaded the road and I cannot say his whereabouts now.
“I hear they are doing the same thing at the Deputy Senate President’s house.”
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Reacting to the developments, Kola Ologbondiyan, a spokesperson for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said Nigeria’s democracy was under assault.
“Democracy has been placed under a jackboot. We are now in a totalitarian government. You can not stop the National Assembly, which is a key element of a constitutional republic.
“We will resist this,” he said.
Saraki’s travails are legion. First, he has been accused of betraying the ruling party by conniving with the opposition PDP to install himself Senate President. He was also charged with falsifying his asset declaration papers, an allegation nullified by Nigeria’s Supreme Court.
The police are yet to provide reasons for the apparent siege. However, Saraki was summoned by the police and asked to report Tuesday at its office in the nation’s capital, Abuja, in connection to the Offa robbery incident in Kwara State for which the police said some suspects mentioned Saraki as a sponsor.