A suspended senator led armed men into Nigeria’s upper legislative chamber in a session Wednesday, stealing the ceremonial staff and, according to analysts, signaling political turmoil ahead of presidential polls in 2019.
Security agencies should retrieve the symbol of authority, which usually lies on the table before the Senate president, and apprehend Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege and the other perpetrators, Senate spokesman Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi said in an emailed statement.
“This speaks to the kind of fractures that we’re going to see as 2019 approaches,” independent political analyst Chris Ngwodo said by phone from Jos, in central Nigeria.
Omo-Agege, a ruling All Progressives Congress party politician seen as a loyalist to President Muhammadu Buhari, was suspended by the Senate for claiming that lawmakers’ move to amend the Electoral Act to reverse the sequence of elections was motivated by anti-Buhari sentiment.