Police To Arrest Ike Ekweremadu, Others Over Senate Forgery

There are strong indications that the police authority will proceed to arrest the Deputy Senate President, lke Ekweremadu, and some former principal officers of the 7th Senate this week.

The affected senators might be arrested for snubbing a police invitation to answer questions on their roles in the alleged forgery of the rules of the Senate in 2015, to elect Bukola Saraki and others.

The Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Department, Garki Abuja, which is investigating the said forgery, was waiting for approval to begin the arrest of the principal officers.

A reliable source at the Force Headquarters confided in Punch that some senior police officers would meet over the issue at the beginning of the week. After the meeting, the investigation department would be asked to arrest the affected principal officers before the end of the week.

In July 2015, the police had invited some principal officers of the Senate over the alleged forgery of rules used for the election of Saraki, his deputy and the inauguration of the 8th Senate.

The police, in a new letter dated June 7, 2016 and signed by AIG of Police, James Caulcrick, had requested the officials of the 7th Senate to report to the Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department, Garki, Abuja, for the purpose of conducting further investigations on the fraudulent use of the Senate Standing Order 2015 (as amended) by the Senate.

In the letter, AIG Caulcrick noted that none of the officials on the 7th Senate list had honoured an invitation to respond to allegations against them, except the Clerk of National Assembly and that of the Senate.

According to Punch, the planned arrest of the principal officers would sure be a prelude to the hearing of the forgery suit filed against some of them at a Federal High Court, Abuja.

An inside source said the police leadership had come to the realisation that they might have to apply “lawful force to compel obedience and cooperation” from the suspects - Ekweremadu and others.

He stated, “Since the suit has been filed, we will arrest the men if they fail to honour our invitation. We are only waiting for the go-ahead from the IGP. We are hoping to pick them up this week or before the hearing of the suit begins.”

Following a directive by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to the IGP the police had submitted the final report of their investigation to the Ministry of Justice for the prosecution of the affected officers.