Deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, has lamented the raid on his house yesterday by the Nigeria Police Force from the Inspector General of Police Special Squad, saying nothing incriminating was found at the end of the exercise.
Ekweremadu, however, described the development which he said happened without a search warrant as a calculated plot to undermine him.
In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Uche Anichukwu, Ekweremadu said the incident happened at 8 am at No. 10 Ganges Street, Maitama, Abuja.
According to Anichukwu, the raid happened at about 8am on Friday, May 26, 2017.
He added that men of the Nigeria Police Force from the Inspector General of Police Special Squad raided the official guest house of the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, located at No. 10 Ganges Street, Maitama, Abuja.
“The police, however, stated at the end of the search that nothing incriminating was found. They met the steward, Oliver Ogenyi, and some of Ekweramdu’s staff and their children in the house.
“In spite of the fact that they were informed that the property is the guest house of the Deputy President of the Senate, they nevertheless proceeded to thoroughly search the house without establishing any contact with the Deputy President of the Senate or any of his senior staff.
“The steward was taken away by the police to the Special Anti-Robbery (SARS) Office, Garki, Abuja, where the IGP Special Squad’s office is also located. Ogenyi was later released after making a statement,” he stated.
While pointing that the deputy president of the Senate is a law-abiding citizen and does not dispute the fact that the security agencies are empowered by law to carry out searches on premises in accordance with the law, he however said the law requires that the owner of the property or his representative must be informed and should be present during the search.
“Senator Ekweremadu is worried about the manner in which his guest house was raided. The questions are: Was there a search warrant? What were they looking for? Who searched the police officers before the search? Who supervised the search?
“Instructively, this incident comes just a few weeks after Senator Ekweremadu, on May 3, 2017, read to the Senate in plenary a written, but anonymous tip-off by a patriotic Nigerian on a plot to plant incriminating sums of foreign currencies, arms, and ammunitions in a house linked to him under the pretext of the whistleblower policy.
“The aim, according to the source, was to rubbish, arrest, prosecute, and ultimately remove Senator Ekweremadu from office,” he said.
