Dubious and highly embarrassing! That was how the Senate President David Mark described the allegation by the Divisional Police Officer, DPO,attached to the National Assembly, that Mark’s security aides were the ones who threw teargas canister at the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Tambuawal when the police invaded the National Assembly last month.
It was learnt that the DPO told the Senator Ahmed Makarfi Ad-Hoc committee investigating the invasion of the National Assembly last month, that it was not police officers from federal capital territory, FCT, that tear-gassed the Speaker and some others of the House of Representatives, but rather the Senate president’s security aides.
Reacting to this, Mark, in a statement signed by his special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Kola Ologbondiyan, said:
‘The attention of the Office of the President of the Senate has been drawn to news reports alleging that security details attached to the President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, were responsible for the use of teargas on the person of the Speaker, House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Waziri Tanbuwal, at the National Assembly premises on November 20, 2014 and credited to SP Idachaba James, the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, of National Assembly.
‘We wish to state without equivocation that the security details attached to the President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, did not and could not have attacked the person of Speaker Tambuwal with tear gas.
‘We find the reports credited to SP. Idachaba that security details of Senator Mark attacked Speaker Tambuwal with tear gas as absolute falsehood, dubious, vexatious, horrible and embarrassing.
‘The events of November 20, 2015 are very fresh and any attempt to re-write or misrepresent them will not stand. SP. Idachaba James, who claimed not to have been present at the scene of the incident but only relied on hearsay, must not be allowed to embark on a name calling exercise.
‘It is also imperative to state that any attempt to create a needless feud between the two chambers of the National Assembly is mischievous and wicked
‘For the avoidance of doubts, we hereby declare that the security aides of the President of the Senate did not attack Speaker Tambuwal with teargas.’
This was however, different from what the DPO said in his testimony indicting Mark’s security aides of being behind Tambuwal and his colleagues attacks on the said day.
His testimonies, which was purely debunked by other heads of security and paramilitary agencies attached to the National Assembly, who vehemently disagreed with him, saying that they were not aware of any Mark’s security aides throwing teargas at the Speaker.