The Senate on Wednesday declared that it would probe the clash between the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Department of State Services, DSS, over attempts to arrest Ayo Oke and Ita Ekpeyong.
Ayo Oke, former Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), and Ita Ekpeyong, former Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Ita Ekpeyong are currently being investigated by the EFCC over alleged financial malpractices.
During the attempt to arrest the two former security chiefs on Tuesday, operatives guiding them prevented the EFCC, thus leading to a heated argument.
As a result of the crisis, human and vehicular movements were restricted in the part of Asokoro, Abuja, where the incident occurred.
However, embarrassed by the development, the Senate has decided to probe the development.
The decision followed a motion to that effect by Senator Dino Melaye from Kogi State.
Already, the Senate has decided to set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the development which many of the senators described as gross irresponsibility.
In his motion for a probe into the matter, Melaye said the development was an embarrassment.
Said he: “Mr. President, the media and social media, print and electronic, have been awash with a disaster that took place yesterday.
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“The EFCC went to the residence of the DG of the SSS Ita Ekpeyong to effect an arrest and the SSS stopped the EFCC from arresting him, they created an environmental brouhaha, the neighbours were stopped from lawfully gaining entrance to their homes and causing confusion.
“The same yesterday the former DG NIA, Mr. Oke, was stopped from being arrested. We will recall that the same director of SSS had written this Senate before now on Mr. Magu, the acting chairman of EFCC. Mr President, we are not to say who is to blame but to say we have been embarrassed before the international community that two sister agencies will engage in fisticuffs and stoppage of arrest. This is a recipe for national disaster.”
Abiodun Olujimi, senator representing Ekiti South, in her contribution to the debate said the development had shown that no one was in charge of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government.
According to her, the incident was a clear show of “gross irresponsibility in government.”
Her words: “The truth is that we cannot go to a house of a security agent, a man who had kept the secrets of Nigeria for so long and just try to arrest him like chicken.
“There has to be someone we can hold responsible when two brothers are fighting, the person that is supposed to be held responsible is not doing his work.
“This is the first time we will see gross irresponsibility in government whereby there is on one to come in between two agencies. These two agencies report to one person – the presidency and now we find them fighting on the pages of newspapers, it’s a shame.
“We are calling on Mr. President to sit up. We rejected Magu as the chairman of the EFCC and up till today nothing has been said.
“The Senate is being defiled, nobody has said we need to solve the issues. There are 170 million Nigerians and all of a sudden we are seeing that one person is the only one? Nobody is in charge of this government.”
