KUDOS AND KNOCKS FOR SECURITY AGENCIES ON THE LOST BUT FOUND MACE

A Legal Practitioner based in Enugu, Mr. Basil Obijuru has called for the arrest and prosecution of those involved in stealing the Mace from the Senate.

Mr. Obijuru who maintained that it would serve as deterrent to others who may want to engage in the act which he described as a public crime, commended the Police for recovering the Mace.

Meanwhile, some notable Nigerians had earlier described the incident as a national embarrassment which portends great danger to the nation’s democracy.

One of them, a former President of the Senate, Senator Ken Nnamani expressed shock over the development.

Senator Nnamani maintained that the ugly incident was an indication of the height of indiscipline in the country and called for a high level of investigation into the matter.

“I don’t know how such a thing could have transpired, we must find a way of finding the people that orchestrated this and put them into strictest trial. So the Police, DSS, all hands should be on deck to fish out those who had such excessive courage to commit such a high level crime. It’s embarrassing.”

Also, a Professor of Political Science, Professor Sam Ugwu described the incident as a sacrilege and an indication of the porosity of security in the Senate.

Professor Ugwu who noted that the mace was a Legislative Authority said, he suspected an act of conspiracy.

“That National Assembly could be invaded and Police and other security agencies do not do anything, Mace that determines the symbol of authority of the National Assembly should be made away with is a surprise to everybody. They must have colluded with security agencies to do that”.

A Constitutional Lawyer, Dr Godstime Okafor, suggested that the National Assembly should have its own security outfit to prevent future occurrence.

Dr Okafor stated that the development had sent a bad signal to the international community about the strength of democracy in the country.

 NNEKA UGWUANYI