National Assembly Sets Up Committee To Investigate Senate Invasion

The Senate and the House of Representatives will jointly set up a  committee to investigate the invasion of the upper chamber and the  theft of its mace on Wednesday last week.

The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, disclosed this after a prolonged closed session of the Senate on Tuesday.

Saraki also urged the public to bear with the lawmakers on the security measures that would be deployed in blocking the loopholes in the security architecture of the National Assembly Complex.

He announced that the Senate and the House of Representatives joint committee would probe the circumstances surrounding the attack.

Saraki also said the Senate had mandated a joint committee in the Senate to grill the Director General of the Department of State Services, Lawal Daura; and the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris.

The panel would also discuss how to protect the building and its environs with the security chiefs.

The leadership of the National Assembly on Monday night met over the matter.

Members of the Senate, at the closed-door session on Tuesday, were said to have discussed the attack but resolved that the matter be left for a committee, whose members would be drawn from the two chambers, to handle.

Reading the resolutions reached by the lawmakers,  Saraki said, “At the meeting, we also resolved on the need to tighten security within the precinct of the National Assembly.

“So, I will need to call on the cooperation of all members of the public to please cooperate with us in this area. We have to definitely to tighten the movements in the National Assembly. Clearly there are some loopholes here that we need to tighten and in doing that, we seek your cooperation.

“We also resolved on the constitution of a joint committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives to investigate the incident of the 18th of April, to look at the factors leading to it and make recommendations to ensure that such never happens again in any of the two chambers.”

In the  House of Representatives, the lawmakers   expressed total loss of confidence in the ability of the country’s security agencies, particularly the police, to protect the National Assembly.

Lawmakers are of the view that last week’s invasion of the Senate by thugs in full glare of security personnel posted to the legislative building, buttress the position.

Solacebase discovered that a key resolution at the meeting was the demand to redeploy the heads of all security agencies currently on posting to the National Assembly.