Why We Are Inviting Ike Ekweremadu For Questioning – Police

The Nigeria Police Force has invited Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, to appear at Force
Headquarters today following his alleged involvement in forging Senate rules. 10The Nigerian Police Force given reasons for inviting the deputy president of the senate, Ike Ekweremadu, to its headquarters for questioning, explained on its Facebook page that it received a petition from a senator who alleged unauthorized substitution of senate document.

It said in line with the policy of the police leadership of gathering evidence, the matter was referred to the Force CID in Abuja for investigation. Following the investigation, a letter was subsequently sent to the clerk of the National Assembly to facilitate a meeting of some principal officers of the senate and the clerk with the police investigating team headed by the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Force CIID.

Mr. Ekweremmadu is expected to appear Monday morning at the force headquarters for the questioning by the police. At Senate plenary on June 24, Kabir Marafa (APC-Zamfara State) a senator opposed to the emergence of Bukola Saraki and Mr. Ekweremadu as President and Deputy President of the Senate respectively, made an attempt to question the June 9 elections of Messrs Saraki and Ekweremadu.

The elections of Messrs. Saraki and Ekweremadu were reportedly based on a revised edition of the Senate rules, version 2015. Mr. Marafa insisted that there was a conflict in the two books as to the procedure that should be taken for election of presiding officers of the senate.

But Ekweremadu’s party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has raised an alarm over the invitation, alleging that some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) were plotting to force him out of office and replace him with another senator from the ruling APC.

The national publicity secretary of PDP, Olisa Metuh, at a press briefing yesterday, alleged that the police invitation on Sen. Ekweremadu, issued by Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, was geared towards arresting him over phantom charges and incarcerating him. He noted that the DIG in charge of criminal investigation had already written to the senator to appear today (Monday).

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He added that the move would lead to the creation of a vacuum in the Senate and the imposition of an APC preferred senator to take over Ekweremadu’s position.

Metuh said: “Since President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement that Senator Ekweremadu’s election was ‘unacceptable’ to his party, the deputy Senate president, who can only be removed by the Senate, has come under threats and intense pressure from APC leaders to resign and allow a senator from the ruling party to take his position.”

Sequel to the PDP’s accusation, the spokesperson for the APC, Lai Mohammed, issued a statement saying the party had no hand in Mr. Ekweremadu’s ordeals. Mr. Mohammed said the APC neither wrote a petition to the police nor is it aware that any petition was written against the deputy senate president.

“However, if, as the PDP claims, the petition concerns alleged altering of the Senate’s Standing Rules on the process of electing presiding officers, that is a clear case of forgery which the police have a duty to investigate. Questioning the right of the police to carry out their duties in this regard amounts to intimidating the security agency.”

“Forgery is a crime that is regularly investigated by the police, and it beggars belief that such investigation will now be interpreted to mean that Nigeria is descending into dictatorship or that democracy and the enjoyment of personal freedoms are now endangered. These claims by the scaremongering PDP are farfetched and preposterous,” it said.