Showing posts with label Senator Ike Ekweremadu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Senator Ike Ekweremadu. Show all posts

Thursday, 19 April 2018

Senate Thug Invasion: Ekweremadu Speaks On His Meeting With Osinbajo

BREAKING NEWS
Senate Thug Invasion: Ekweremadu Speaks On His Meeting With Osinbajo
Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu has said he was at the Presidential Villa to update Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo, on what transpired earlier at the Red Chamber during plenary on Wednesday.
Ekweremadu and Osinbajo were having behind closed-doors meeting for hours after the invasion of the Senate chambers by suspected thugs.
Ekweremadu told state house correspondents at the end of the meeting that since the President, Muhammadu Buhari, and the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, were out of the country, it was incumbent on him to intimate the Vice-President on the invasion of Senate by hoodlums.
He said: “I’m sure you are aware of the senate invasion today and we have to come and brief the vice-president because the president is not in town. It is appropriate for him to know. We are in a democracy; we are all in one government.
“It is the responsibility of the president or the vice-president to ensure that there is law and order in the country and once we have this kind of major development it is important that he is briefed at the earliest opportunity.
“The senate president is out of the country, it is, therefore, my responsibility to come over and brief the vice-president who has sympathised with us over what happened and he is going to join forces with us to ensure that we get to the root of the matter to make sure that this will not happen again.
“For us, it’s a threat to our democracy, the invasion of the parliament is not acceptable to any person, it’s not acceptable to me, it’s not acceptable to the VP, it’s not acceptable to my colleagues, I believe it’s not also acceptable to the president so those who acted this script must be on their own.”
He also appealed to the media to do its best in discouraging this “kind of brigandage”.
Ekweremadu also criticised Omo-Agege, wondering the right he had to enter into the red chamber when he was on suspension.
“All we need to do as a country is to ensure that this is forestalled and I want to appeal to the media to help us discourage this kind of brigandage so that people have to behave in a very responsible manner. But let me assure you that we are on top of the situation, we did our sitting today and we are going to continue tomorrow,” he said.
“Having suffered suspension, does Omo-Agege have legal right to enter the chamber? It was a breach of the law for him to force himself into the chambers, as I said police is still investigating we are going to find out the details of those who aided him to come in and then some of them I believe have been arrested and we will get to the root of the matter,” he added,
It could be recalled that Senator Ovie Omo-Agege allegedly led suspected thugs into the senate chamber to cart away the mace, which is the symbol of authority of the legislature.
Theodore Orji, a Senator from Abia state was speaking on the floor of the senate when the unwanted visitors broke in.
The senate immediately went into a closed-door session after which a spare mace was brought and it reconvened.

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Monday, 12 March 2018

Ike Ekweremadu Reacts To His Trending Comment "Call For Military Take Over"

BREAKING NEWS
Ike Ekweremadu Reacts To His Trending Comment "Call For Military Take Over"
 
The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has reacted to the statement credited to him insinuating possibility of a military take over in the country.
Ekweremadu, speaking over the weekend at the Diepreye Alaimeyeseigha Memorial Banquet Hall, Onopa, during a dinner hosted by Governor Henry Seriake Dickson for members of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, said his comments on the floor of the Senate were misconstrued.
He stressed that he would never make derogatory statements against the Nigerian military, urging that statements made by lawmakers in the course of their duty should be situated within the proper context before any form of reaction.
Ekweremadu maintained that his remarks on the floor of the Senate chambers were to caution politicians to avoid the mistakes of the past, which inevitably led to the abrupt end of the First Republic.
He said “Before I close, let me just tell you one unfortunate incident that happened last week.
“We had one of our colleagues from Kogi who was hosting a constituency briefing and empowerment.
“He alleged that the government sponsored thugs to come and chase away people and destroy the programme and equipment he bought for his people.
“We condemned such acts, especially where, in a particular case, the property of a parliamentarian was destroyed.
“We condemned a case whereby parliamentarians were stopped from holding meetings and where a parliamentarian was stopped from coming to a state where he was governor for eight years.
“We warned that it was this kind of reckless abuse of power and impunity that scuttled our democracy earlier, especially in the First Republic and I cautioned that politicians should not take things for granted.
“Of course, some people took it out of context and said I was calling for a military coup.
“I never called for a military coup. I never said the military was planning any coup.
“If you read some parts of the military statement, they admitted that my statement and contributions were only cautionary and that we were sincere, but, they went as far as saying the international community should ignore me.”
Meanwhile, reactions have continued trailed the deputy President’s statement.
The Nigerian army said the statement by Ekweremadu was derogatoryto the Army and by extension to the Armed Forces of Nigeria.

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