Ekweremadu victim of burglary attempt, police say

Nigerian police Tuesday night said the country’s deputy senate president was a victim of a burglary attempt and not assassination as he claimed.

“Preliminary investigation carried out so far did not reveal assassination attempt on the life of the Dep Senate President, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu and his family but a case of Burglary,” Nigeria Police Force tweeted on Tuesday.

But the Senator Ike Ekweremadu insisted that there was an attempt to kill him.

He told his colleagues in the Senate hours after the alleged assassination attempt that he was able to escape because “there was a fight with heavy commotion.”

One of the suspected assassins, he said, was apprehended and handed over to the police.

“It was about 4:00 a.m. this morning that some people evaded the security in my house and got all the way to my room where I was sleeping with my wife,” he said.

“There was a struggle. There was a fight with heavy commotion. And by the grace of God, we eventually caught one of them and the rest escaped.”

He said the response to his distress call to the inspector-general of police and the deputy inspector-general in charge of operations were poor.

“The annoying aspect or the one that is worrisome is that at that point, I called the Inspector General of Police,” Ekweremadu said.

“His phone was (switched) off. I called some of his aides. Their phones rang out. Nobody replied, till now. I called DIG Operations. Till I left my house, nobody showed up.”

Police spokesman Jimoh Moshood, however, said five persons on Ekweremadu’s security detail have been arrested “negligent acts and dereliction of duty.”