Police say incident at Ekweremadu's home not an assassination attempt

The Nigeria Police Force said it had commenced investigation on the alleged assassination attempt on Deputy President of the Senate Ike Ekweremadu.

Acting DCP Jimoh Moshood, the Force Public Relations Officer disclosed this while addressing newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja.

Moshood explained that the incident was a burglary and not an assassination attempt.

The News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) reports that Ekweremadu, his wife and son, allegedly escaped assassination attempt at their Apo residence in Abuja in the early hours of Tuesday.

NAN also report that Ekweremadu had narrowly escaped an alleged attempt on his life in Abuja on Nov. 17, 2015.

The spokesman said that similar incident also took place at the residence of Haliru Adamu, a neighbour of the deputy president.

“Investigation so far carried out in the incident does not have any link to assignation attempt,” he said.

He said that one of the suspects, Mohammed Yusuf who was arrested by the police was in police custody and had made useful statements.

“The suspect has been assisting the police in the investigation into the matter. We have intensified efforts to arrest other suspects who escaped from the crime scene,” he said.

He said that Ekweremadu and Adamu have made statements to the police in respect of the incident.

Moshood said that Adamu lost his cell phones and jewelries to the thieves while nothing was reportedly stolen from Ekweremadu’s house.

In a related development, the Police have arrested 20 suspects in connection with cattle rustling, kidnapping, armed robbery and forgery around Katsina state.

The suspects are : Labe Wada, Lawal Wada, Labaran Ilyasu, Haruna Idris, Lawal Suberu, Ilyasu Ibrahim, Jamila Aliyu, Usman Abdullahi, Sada Bala, Osuji Stephen, Abdulkadir Ilya among others.

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The force spokesman, DCP Jimoh Moshood disclosed that items recovered from the suspects included: four Ak 47, one Ak 49, one locally-made revolver, four Ak 47 magazines, one unregistered motorcycle, ammunition and three forged cheques.

Moshood said that all the suspects who were arrested by the IGP Special Strike Force, have confessed to the various roles they played in the commission of the crimes.

The spokesman said that the suspects would be arraigned in court on completion of investigation into the matter.

He said that IGP Ibrahim Idris has directed all Assistant Inspectors General of police to beef up security in their areas of responsibilities.