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By Cecilia Ijuo
President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, has alleged plots to implicate him in Tuesday’s blockade of the National Assembly by men of Department of State Services (DSS).
In a joint statement signed by his media aide, Mr Yusuph Olaniyonu and Mr Uche Anichukwu, an aide to his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, Saraki said the plot was to also implicate other Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers, including Ekweremadu.
He said the Presidency had constituted a panel to review the Police report and submit a final recommendation, adding that information available to them indicated that there were attempts to implicate them.
Saraki said that he had information that instead of a public inquiry or judicial commission to probe the incident as demanded by the public, the Presidency had commenced a process of “manipulation and fabrication’’.
He revealed that the Presidency had set up a closet panel, to work to a pre-determined conclusion in which they would claim that he and his deputy colluded with ex-DG of DSS, Lawal Daura, to stage the blockade at the assembly.
“They want to shield the fact that the previous night before the invasion and up till the early hours of Tuesday, there was a meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) senators.
“And, that the plan was for them to be moved in a Coaster bus into the National Assembly complex to purportedly remove us and select a new Senate President and Deputy Senate President.
“Their plot only failed because the media, particularly social media, Nigerians and the international community responded very swiftly as some legislators who came into the complex were refused entry by gun-wielding and hooded security operatives.
“Now, they want to turn the facts and blame us for their botched plot against democracy.
“We are hereby alerting all Nigerians and members of the international community that the present Nigerian government will stop at nothing to destroy, suppress and incapacitate the opposition.
“This is their new tactics and plot as we approach the period of the 2019 polls.
“We hereby reiterate our earlier position that the coup against democracy as shown by last week’s invasion must be probed through an independent judicial commission of inquiry which will produce a comprehensive report.
“We reject any manipulated and fabricated investigation,” he stated.
Saraki added that his group had also uncovered a sinister plot in which the government planned to use anti-graft and security agencies to incarcerate them and some members of their families from next week.
This, he said, was all in a bid to break their will and effect their removal. (NAN)