Stolen Ogun Assembly mace found in Lagos

About 24 hours after burglars broke into the Ogun State House of Assembly and stole its mace, the police say they have recovered the lawmakers’ symbol of authority in Lagos.

A statement by the Public Relations Officer of the Lagos State Police Command, Muyiwa Adejobi, said the mace was recovered around the Abule Ado area of Lagos.

The statement said, “The police operatives attached to Trade Fair Station of the Lagos State Police Command today, Friday, December 11, 2020, recovered the missing mace of the Ogun State House of Assembly at Abule Ado Area of the state at about 8.30am.”

The burglars who invaded the Ogun State House of Assembly complex on Thursday, also damaged some property in the assembly.

The hoodlums had accessed the Assembly complex in a pre-dawn operation despite the security presence and broke into the Office of the Speaker

But the spokesman for the Lagos police command said, “The police operatives, who were responsive, worked on intelligence from the members of the community that someone in a moving vehicle, suspected to be Toyota Siena Space Wagon, threw out an object into the nearby bush and recovered the object which was later identified to be the Ogun State House of Assembly mace.

“The mace had been allegedly stolen from the House of Assembly complex, Ogun State recently. It has been handed over to the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, Hakeem Odumosu, who later instructed the DCP State CID, Lagos State, Yetunde Longe, to protect the mace and liaise with the Ogun State Police Command on the return of the recovered mace to Ogun State.”

The statement quoted Odumosu as promising to assist the Ogun State Police Command in the investigation into the incident that led to the recovery of the mace.

On Thursday, spokesman for the Ogun State Command, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the command had recovered a part of the mace, the coat of arms portion of it.

Oyeyemi said, “We are getting some clues on the perpetrators of the incident and very soon we will arrest everyone that partook in that act.

“No arrest has been made, but investigation has commenced. You know the mace has a tail that has the coat of arms symbol. This one has been recovered. We are looking at every possible clue.”