The Friday morning raid on the official Abuja guest house of Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu has been strongly condemned by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Senate Caucus. The Police had on Friday raided the National Assembly guest house in Abuja assigned to the use of the Deputy Senate President Senator Ekweremadu, claiming that a whistle blower tipped them off that Ekweremadu hid arms and money in the property.
Initially, police spokesperson, Moshood Jimoh had denied the raid was carried out by the police.
“It was not us,” Mr. Jimoh had said. “I have asked all our departments and confirmed none of our officers was there.”
In any case, the Caucus in a statement in Abuja by its spokesman, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe lambasted the Police invasion as unwarranted, unacceptable and a deliberate attempt to muzzle the opposition.
Abaribe said 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.
“The raid said to have been ordered by the Inspector General of police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, on a property owned by the National Assembly was a willful affront on democracy.”
“We had raised alarm on this plot not too long ago and now they have carried out the assignment only to reach a dead end, to the embarrassment of the police and other anti-democratic forces bent on casting a wicked shadow on our fledgling democracy.
“We of the Senate PDP Caucus will never be intimidated or cowed in discharging our constitutional mandate of providing a responsible opposition.
“Is it not an irony that the raid in the National Assembly guest house is coming on the eve of the democracy day anniversary?
“A raid on a property of another arm of government is a dangerous continuation of attack on the institutions that affects the needed checks on the excesses of the executive.
“It cast an ominous sign and this must stop,” he said.
The invasion of the guest house of the deputy Senate President comes two weeks after Mr. Ekweremadu alleged that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, was planning to raid his house.
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