The mace of the Senate forcefully taken away by some hoodlum at the Senate Chamber of the National Assembly has been recovered by the Police.
The Mace was carted away by some suspected thugs during a plenary session on Wednesday.
The action led the Senate to direct the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris and the Director General of the State Security Services (SSS), Lawan Daura, to retrieve the mace within 24 hours.
The Police in a statement in the early hours of Thursday by the Deputy Force Spokesman, SP Aremu Adeniran said the mace was abandoned at a point under the flyover before the City Gate.
Adeniran also said the IG has directed the Commissioner of Police, FCT to beef up security at the National Assembly.
The statement reads: โSequel to the invasion of the Senate Chambers of the National Assembly, Federal Republic of Nigeria on the 18th April, 2018 by some suspected thugs who disrupted the Senate Plenary Session and carted away the Mace of the Red Chambers, the Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim Idris, immediately instituted a high-powered Police Investigation and Intelligence Team coordinated by the IGP Monitoring Unit of the Force and further directed a total lock-down of the Federal Capital Territory with intense surveillance patrol and thorough Stop and Search operations at various Police check-points with a view to arresting perpetrators and possible recovery of the stolen mace.โ
On how the mace was recovered, Adeniran said: โThe Police teams engaged in massive raids of identified criminal spots/flashpoints, stop and search operations, visibility and confidence building patrols, intelligence gathering which forced the suspected miscreants to abandon the Mace at a point under the flyover before the City Gate, where a patriotic passer-by saw it and alerted the Police.โ
The Police while commending motorists within Abuja Metropolis for their support and timely information during the rigorous stop and search operations for the recovery of the Mace added that discreet investigation into the incident was ongoing so as to arrest and bring the perpetrators to justice.
